Picture courtesy of medical students Oliver Trampleasure and Ali Jawad.
48 | NEWS | HIGHER EDUCATION
SPONSORED BY:
First UK medical school launches Google Glass tech in curriculum
Q
ueen Mary University of London's Medical School – Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry – is launching the
groundbreaking use of Google Glass technology into its undergraduate curriculum, primarily within surgical teaching. This is the fi rst of its kind outside of North America, having only been used by a small number of medical schools in the USA so far. Google Glass is a wearable computer
with an optical head-mounted display. Earlier this year, Virtual Medics – a group of consultant surgeons at Barts Health NHS Trust and medical students at QMUL – used Google Glass to fi lm a surgical procedure in what was the UK's fi rst global live-streamed surgical teaching session. The procedure was watched live via computer or mobile phone, by 13,000 surgical students, healthcare professionals and members of the public from around the world in over 115 countries. By embedding Google Glass into
the medical curriculum students can watch live surgery on their mobile
devices, laptops and computers. They can also interact with surgeons during procedures, such as asking them questions, without compromising the safety of the procedure. Students will be taught basic surgical
and clinical skills remotely using the streaming platform via Virtual Medics online learning environment
virtualmedics.org – this will be the most technologically advanced module in the undergraduate curriculum. Mr Shafi Ahmed, Honorary
Clinical Senior Lecturer in Surgery at Queen Mary University of London and Director of Virtual Medics™ comments: "Harnessing this technology really shows our medical school is both ready for, and supportive of, new ideas for teaching and learning. We are starting out by using Google Glass for surgical teaching, but our long-term aim is to roll it out in other aspects of the school. "Our medical students have an active
involvement in this initiative, in particular Ali Jawad and Oliver Trampleasure, who helped found the programme and are
further increasing participation in various projects through our Virtual Medics™ Associates Scheme. The students see its value and are excited about its potential – which is really great to see." The medical school aims to analyse
other areas of the curriculum which could be modernised and enhanced by integrating this technology. The school also aims to establish itself as a centre of excellence for using Google Glass in medical education and training, eventually helping other medical schools who are interested in using the platform. Mr Ahmed continued: "I am excited
about how ahead-of-the-curve this technology is, and its great potential. This could totally change how we teach and engage our students and hopefully inspire them in their future careers. We hope those considering a career in medicine will be at racted to the use of new technology and appreciate we're off ering something diff erent. We also hope other medical schools across the country will also be inspired to engage with Virtual Medics." ET
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86