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General Interest: How 'Artful Thinking' Can Improve Your Visual Intelligence

General Interest: How 'Artful Thinking' Can Improve Your Visual Intelligence
By: Teodora Zareva
Submitted by: Michael Maury, UCSD School of Medicine

In this article, author Teodora Zareva discusses “a recent study from the University of Pennsylvania” which “shows how principles from the field of visual arts can successfully be applied to medical training to increase observational and descriptive abilities.” As Zareva puts it, “observational skills are critical for medical students and yet students undergo no specific training to develop them.” According to this article, the results from this research study “were impressive”. As one 1st year medical student reflected, “After just one session, I found myself listening to a radiologist discuss the same principles we used to look at art when analyzing a CT scan. Later I found our practice of creating narratives in the art class helped guide me when interacting with standardized patients.” Read on here to learn more about the “Artful Thinking” approach and how it might benefit medical education.

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General Interest: Medical Jargon May Cloud Doctor-patient Communication

General Interest: Medical Jargon May Cloud Doctor-patient Communication
By: Mary Gillis
Submitted by: Michael Maury, UCSD School of Medicine

As Standardized Patient Educators, we understand the importance of clear communication. We encourage our students to use very little jargon or at least follow up any jargon with a clear explanation as to mitigate misunderstanding and confusion. In this article, Mary Gillis discusses a recent “survey of London oral and maxillofacial surgery clinic patients” where “more than a third of participants did not know the meaning of terms like ‘benign’ or ‘lesion’ and more than half could not define ‘metastasis’ or ‘lymph node’.” According to UK researchers, Gillis states, “when patients misunderstand commonly used medical terms, communication and decision-making may suffer.” Read the full article on Reuters Health News here.

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General Interest: Data Visualization in Medical Communication

General Interest: Data Visualization in Medical Communication
Source: 90TEN Healthcare
Submitted by: Michael Maury, UCSD School of Medicine

In the increasingly data-rich but time-poor environment of clinical practice, doctors face the escalating challenge of maintaining up-to-date clinical knowledge. By 2020, it is estimated that medical knowledge will be doubling every 73 days. How can medical communications help to meet this challenge and ensure that the content delivered is in a clear and understandable format, and can be assimilated quickly? One solution is data visualization. Read the full article at PMLiVE here.

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Essay: My Real Patients

Essay: My Real Patients
By: Lisa Simon, D.M.D.
Submitted by: Janice Radway, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

In this essay, medical student Lisa Simon compares her interactions with standardized patients in a clinical exam to her work as a dentist in a local jail. She describes how both encounters are watched by an outside eye (whether by video camera or security guard) and how that observation affects the interaction. She expresses her desire to receive the same authentic feedback from her “real patients” as she receives from her SPs. Read the full essay in the New England Journal of Medicine here.

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General Interest: New Cell Phone App Improves Patient Experience and Drives Growth

General Interest: New Cell Phone App Improves Patient Experience and Drives Growth
Source: The Holvan Group
Submitted by: Michael Maury, UCSD School of Medicine

“The Holvan Group, a technology company focused on improving the patient experience and easing the burden placed on physicians, today announced the launch of two apps that complement the company's educational videos and expand patient engagement. The Holvan Group's proprietary technologies streamline the patient preparation process and improve the interaction between patients and healthcare providers.” Technology is continually expanding and being utilized in the world of medicine. We as SP Educators must be diligent in keeping up with these changes and incorporating them into our curriculums and teachings. Read for more information that may spark new ideas to incorporate into your program. Read the full article at Cleveland 19 News here.

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General Interest: Future Physician, Heal Thyself – Get Thee to a Gallery

General Interest: Future Physician, Heal Thyself – Get Thee to a Gallery
By: Tom Jacobs
Submitted by: Valerie Fulmer, ASPE President

Envision a new generation of doctors who are more compassionate toward their patients, less prone to jumping to conclusions, and less likely to feel burned out. Then imagine such characteristics could be cultivated by tweaking the physician-training program. Sound good? Well, new research suggests such a shift is entirely possible. The key is exposing our future MDs to the arts. Read the full article at Pacific Standard here.

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General Interest: Alan Alda Shares Communication Wisdom at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University

General Interest: Alan Alda Shares Communication Wisdom at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Submitted by: Janice Radway, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Actor Alan Alda (of M*A*S*H fame) recently spoke to the students and faculty of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University during “The Patient Will See You Now,” a special grand rounds lecture held at the school. During the past several years, Alda has been helping scientists learn to communicate more clearly with the public through his work with Stony Brook University School of Journalism’s Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. While Alda did not specifically discuss the use of SPs, we educators know what a valuable tool SPs provide for building empathy and communication skills. Alda’s staff held workshops designed to help healthcare providers hone their communication skills with interprofessional teams as well as patients, often using improvisational theater exercises. Read the full article in Rowan Today here.

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Affiliate News: Society For Simulation in Healthcare Names Board Members

Affiliate News: Society For Simulation in Healthcare Names Board Members
Submitted by: Valerie Fulmer, ASPE President

WASHINGTON, D.C. January 20, 2018: The Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) announced today its 2018 board of directors. Read the full release at PRWEB here.

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General Interest: ‘What did the doctor say?’ - A Simple Question with a Difficult Answer

General Interest: ‘What did the doctor say?’ - A Simple Question with a Difficult Answer
By: Richard Klasco and Lewis H. Glinert, The Washington Post
Submitted by: Ken Conselyea, , SP Ohio State University

Few simple questions are as difficult to answer as the perennial “What did the doctor say?” The words are so natural as to be virtually automatic. They spring from our lips, almost of their own accord, whenever a loved one returns from a doctor’s visit. Whether we recognize it or not, the answer has the potential to make us face our own mortality. Read the full article in The Washington Post here.

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General Interest: The word is out! ASPE Standards of Best Practice publication receives praise from Advances in Simulation Journal

General Interest: The word is out! ASPE Standards of Best Practice publication receives praise from Advances in Simulation Journal
By: Valerie Fulmer, ASPE President

Many of you know of our recent Standards of Best Practice (SOBP) publication in the international journal Advances in Simulation. These standards establish a baseline for best practice in SP methodology essential to this new field and all programs working with SPs. A living document, the SOBP will continue to blossom and grow to serve this community of SP educators and others around the world.

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General Interest: UofL School of Medicine to Host IMPROV FOR CLINICIANS Clinic with The Second City

General Interest: UofL School of Medicine to Host IMPROV FOR CLINICIANS Clinic with The Second City
By: Rob Stein, NPR
Submitted by: Michael Maury, UCSD School of Medicine

Here is another example of how theatrical improvisation is being used to help clinicians improve their communications skills. This article calls attention to students at the University of Louisville School of Medicine who teamed up with a Second City comedy troupe to partake in its “improv for Clinicians” workshop. "Improv for Clinicians" is meant to mirror the clinical experience that students, residents and faculty experience at the UofL School of Medicine, but with an entertaining and humorous twist.”  Might all medical schools benefit from similar workshops? Read about the event that occurred last fall at Broadwayworld.com here and let the creative ideas flow.

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General Interest: Words That Keep Mental Health Stigma Alive

General Interest: Words That Keep Mental Health Stigma Alive
By: Angela E. Gambrel
Submitted by: Dan Brown, Emory School of Medicine

This is a companion/follow-up post to the blog entry posted on December 18 regarding the misuse of mental health terms. This piece delves into an interested historical perspective on how “lunatic,” “imbecile,” and other words now used exclusively as insults were once medical terms. Read the full article at HealthyPlace.com  here.

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General Interest: You, Me and Them - Experiencing Discrimination in America - Scientists Work To Overcome Legacy of Tuskegee Study, Henrietta Lacks

General Interest: You, Me and Them - Experiencing Discrimination in America - Scientists Work To Overcome Legacy of Tuskegee Study, Henrietta Lacks
By: Rob Stein, NPR
Submitted by: Michael Maury, UCSD School of Medicine

This article gives us good food for thought. That is, what are we doing as Standardized Patient Educators to take a stand for equality in health care? Are we creating SP cases that represent all people of various ethnicities and cultural backgrounds? Or, are we only creating cases that are easier for us to cast based on our current SP pools?

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General Interest: HealthySimulation.com Relaunches Medical Simulation Resource Website and Newsletter

General Interest: HealthySimulation.com Relaunches Medical Simulation Resource Website and Newsletter
Submitted by: Lance Bailey

After seven months of hard work, the newly redeveloped Healthcare Simulation resource website HealthySimulation.com has finally launched! Not only has the website, newsletter, and branding been updated with a modern professional aesthetic, but also has given brand new functionality to better serve you the latest in medical simulation news, product information, conference coverage, research highlights, tutorial insights, and more! Features on the website include searching and posting for medical simulation jobs, finding healthcare simulation vendors, submitting articles to share with a global community, and subscribing to the Healthy Simulation Newsletter. Read about the relaunched website and new features here.

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General Interest: Innovative UCSD Program Aims to Draw Compassion Out of Future Doctors

General Interest: Innovative UCSD Program Aims to Draw Compassion Out of Future Doctors
By: Kinsee Morlan
Submitted by: Michael Maury, UCSD School of Medicine

As Standardized Patient Educators one of our many tasks is to foster and build empathy within our student doctors. We can accomplish this in many different ways. Since many of us in the SP world come from theatrical backgrounds, we are aware of the value of the performing arts in building compassion toward others. We know that acting and theatre has a built-in empathic element which can be passed on to any learner who is open and willing to partake whole-heartedly in theatre games and improvisational exercises. What if there were other artistic endeavors that could accomplish this goal as well? In fact, there are such opportunities and in this article, author Kinsee Morlan describes an artist-in-residency program at the UC San Diego School of Medicine that has students sketch live nude models, real human skeletons and eventually cadavers helping them focus on details that build their abilities for empathy and compassion. Created by artist Joyce Cutler-Shaw and now currently taught by Larry and Debbie Kline, “the goal of the drawing class is not to turn doctors into artists, but to build empathy through art. The students will go on to be doctors, and the goal is to make them doctors who care.” Read the full article in Voice of San Diego here.

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General Interest: Essential Reflective Writing Resource: Pulse--Voices from the Heart of Medicine

General Interest: Essential Reflective Writing Resource: Pulse--Voices from the Heart of Medicine
By: Paul Gross, MD, as submitted to DR-ED Listserv
Forwarded with permission by: Todd Lash, Publications Committee Chair

Pulse--voices from the heart of medicine, an online publication launched by Department of Family Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2008, now has over 11,000 subscribers.

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General Interest: OCD, Bipolar, Schizophrenic and the Misuse of Mental Health Terms

General Interest: OCD, Bipolar, Schizophrenic and the Misuse of Mental Health Terms
By: Jon Kelly and Denise Winterman
Submitted by: Dan Brown, Emory School of Medicine

If you jokingly, metaphorically, describe yourself as “OCD,” or “schizophrenic,” or “bipolar,” you could be doing a disservice to those who are clinically diagnosed with these challenging conditions, argue Kelly and Winterman. The misuse of these terms leads to a public misunderstanding of the diagnoses, and can contribute to stigmatization of mental illness. Some sufferers appreciate the increased awareness of the conditions, even if it’s misguided, but as educators in the medical field, it’s advisable to avoid using diagnostic terms in a metaphorical sense. Read the full article at BBC News Magazine here.

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General Interest: Mindfulness Apps Aim To Help People Disconnect From Stress

By: Allison Aubrey
Submitted by: Michael Maury, UCSD School of Medicine

As we fearlessly roller skate through our busy everyday lives, it is good to remember that there are great practices that can help us manage any stress that may invade our body and mind. Meditation has long been an important relaxing practice that helps individuals remain present and calm in the moment. As of late, Mindfulness Meditation has been a hot topic for many to help cope with the raucous rumblings that our world is witnessing. In this NPR news segment, Allison Aubrey makes note of some helpful downloadable Apps that may help us connect to our calming breath bringing us closer to a state of simple being. It is pointed out in this piece that there are “documented benefits of mindfulness meditation” which “can include better management of chronic pain, an increase in self-awareness, improved digestion and higher immune function.” It is understood that we all are busy with our jobs and personal lives. It is a good reminder, as the Zen proverb states, “You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes every day – unless you’re too busy. Then you should sit for hour.” Read on here for some potentially influential and uplifting guidance.

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General Interest: NASA Program Aims to Prepare Astronauts to Become Space Doctors

General Interest: NASA Program Aims to Prepare Astronauts to Become Space Doctors
Submitted by: Scott Winfield, The Ohio State University

NASA and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have teamed up to create a first-of-its-kind simulator to teach astronauts how to deal with medical emergencies. Watch the NBC Nightly News feature on YouTube here.

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Research Article: An Easy-to-build, Low-budget Point-of-care Ultrasound Simulator - From Linux to a Web-based Solution

Research Article: An Easy-to-build, Low-budget Point-of-care Ultrasound Simulator - From Linux to a Web-based Solution
Lead Author: Domagoj Damjanovic
Submitted by: Kerensa Peterson, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Finding a hands-on ultrasound simulator that is inexpensive and easy to access in any setting is a challenge for many medical schools.  There are computer-based programs that have been developed that are either affordable or accessible but combining these two principles has remained challenging – until now.  The authors of this study analyzed the usability of an HTML-based solution to this problem that they created based on the developers of the original EDUS2, Paul Kulyk and Paul Olszynski.  Take a look at this incredible innovation in the Critical Ultrasound Journal here.

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