Table of Contents
Simulation Brings Revolution in Health
Professional Education
Presentations explore innovations in teaching and learning; awards go to four
“Ow!” Audience members were startled at the sound from the computer as Grace Huang, M.D., moved a hand icon across a patient’s torso displayed on the screen.
Keynote speaker Grace Huang, M.D., left, visits with conference participant Janis Scott, center, and poster presentation winner Monica Dancel during the UT Health Science Center at Houston’s Sixth Annual Advances in Teaching and Learning Regional Conference. Photo by Ester Fant
Giving the keynote address May 10 at the Sixth Annual Advances in Teaching and Learning Regional Conference, Huang said, “We have a possible revolution on our hands” with the growth of computer simulation in education for health professionals.
Huang is director of educational technology and the Lunder Clinical Educator in Multimedia Programs at the Carl J. Shapiro Institute for Education and Research at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Using onscreen animations of procedures and patient simulations with electronic mannikins expands the range of situations in which students may practice before facing live clinical encounters. The simulations provide standardized cases and “enforce in a safe manner the consequences of bad decision making,” she said. The emotional engagement of hearing a simulated patient moan or seeing the vital signs in danger impresses the experience upon students’ memory.
As a consultant to the Association of American Medical Colleges, Huang is working in an initiative to enable all medical schools to benefit from “virtual patients” as learning tools.
Winning Presentations
The first time that top presentations have been
selected at the Advances in Teaching and Learning
Regional Conference, twice as many prizes were
awarded as were expected. Because the judges could
not break the ties, first authors of two posters and
two podium presentations each received $500 cash
awards, thanks to the Lone Star Legacy Society.
Winning poster presentations were:
- “The ‘ICED’ Curriculum: Integrated Cultural Education in Dentistry” by Deborah Franklin, D.D.S., first author; Douglas Simmons, D.D.S.; and Paula O'Neill, Ed.D., Dental Branch.
- “It’s Your Game...Keep it Real: Feasibility of an Innovative Multimedia Virtual Work to Prevent HIV/STI and Pregnancy in Middle School Youth” by Monica Dancel, first author; Charlie Coton; Ross Shegog, Ph.D.; Christine Markham, Ph.D.; Melissa Fleschler, Ph.D.; Rachael Ledet; Raymond Pena; and Susan Tortolero, Ph.D., School of Public Health.
- “It Takes a Multidisciplinary Team Informed by K- 12 Teachers to Develop K-12 Curricula: The HEADS UP Process” by Nancy Murray, Dr.P.H., first author, School of Public Health; Ross Shegog, Ph.D., School of Public Health; Mary Hobbs, Ed.D., Spring Branch ISD; Deborah Franklin, D.D.S., Dental Branch; Gilbert Castro, Ph.D., Medical School; and Belinda Reininger, Dr.P.H., School of Public Health Brownsville Regional Campus.
- “The New Comprehensive Clinical Competencies Exam (CCCE): Third Year Medical Students Keynote speaker Grace Huang, M.D., left, visits with conference participant Janis Scott, center, and poster presentation winner Monica Dancel during the UT Health Science Center at Houston’s Sixth Annual Advances in Teaching and Learning Regional Conference. Photo by Ester Fant Performance in Two Large Academic Centers” by Fabrizia Faustinella, M.D., Ph.D., first author, Medical School; and Linda Perkowski, Ph.D., now at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
Conference sponsors were: the health science center’s Office of Academic Affairs, School of Health Information Sciences and Lone Star Legacy Society; Blackboard and Accordent. Chaired by Cynthia Phelps, Ph.D., assistant professor of health informatics, the conference planning committee represented a university-wide effort.
By Ina Fried, Public Affairs