Mobile Devices for Medical Education

Today I'm doing a video teleconference keynote to a group in Thailand to discuss the use of mobile devices in medical education at Harvard.

Here are the slides I'll use.  Thanks to Jason Alvarez at HMS for preparing the data.

Key findings from the 2012 HMS Mobile Survey

89% of teaching faculty are mobile users
97% of students in their clinical years own a smart mobile device
49% of Preclinical Students own an iPad
37% of teaching Faculty have iPads
70% of HMS teaching faculty that have a mobile device use an iPhone

Creating mobile apps using mobile-friendly style sheets worked well for us in the past,   Native apps provide a better user experience so HMS has created an iPhone native app for use by clinical students who need a more responsive user experience in areas with slow internet connections.

Android devices are used by 23% of students.   HMS tries to support both Apple and Android platforms but Apple devices are always the first implemented and are easier to support due to their consistent configuration and predictability, especially around security management.

To help students and faculty find the best apps, HMS has created a "Zagat Guide" for apps that enables the community to share evaluations and ratings.   For example, the top 5 apps per the crowdsourcing input are


John Hopkins Antibiotics Guide
VisualDx
ePocrates Essentials
5 Minute Clinical Consult
iRadiology


Bottom line - the educational platform for 2012 is no longer the web, it's mobile.