Tag: free open access medical education

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Anesthesia Education Business/Finances Clinical Tips Preparing for Grad School/Residency

#38 – The Master Anesthesia app with Matthew Willis, DNP, CRNA

Dr Matthew Willis is the CRNA who created and produces the educational app Master Anesthesia, which is available from the App Store and Google Play Store.  

I’ve been using this app for the last several months and I’m super impressed at a few things:

  1. it’s packed with real-world information that’s evidence based from case tips to pharmacology
  2. the calculator is amazing… it’s so easy to use and gives you all the information you really need super fast.. more on that in just a sec
  3. Matthew has made crowd-sourcing the continued build of the app super easy… he’s looking for people to contribute so the quality and scope of the app will continue to improve as more people make contributions.  It’s like a curated wikipedia app focused specifically on anesthesia content.  And you get recognition in the app for your contributions. 

And lastly, the app is 100% free!  My other go-to anesthesia app cost me $100 and it only gives me half the information Master Anesthesia does.  I’d have to pay another $100 for access to the coexisting disease information.   

I can’t say enough about how significant it is that Matthew has kept this app completely free for the anesthesia community and he continues to dump an incredible amount of personal time building it despite having a full time job and a family.  The Master Anesthesia app is quintessential free open access medical education or FOAM… a concept I recently talked about on the podcast in episode #34.  FOAM removes pay walls and financial barriers so healthcare providers – and importantly students and residents – can access leading content for free. 

For the first 30 minutes of the discussion, we unpack the app and its features and in the back half of the interview, Matthew discusses how he started the app as his DNP project and what fuels his motivation now.

So the app features a run down on common surgeries, pathologic conditions, anesthesia-related drugs and a super high-powered calculator.  This calculator is unlike anything I’ve seen; it really is unique.  It tells you everything from common vital signs, airway device sizing, tidal volumes, drug & fluid calculations and local anesthetic dosing all based on the weight and/or height of your patient.  The local anesthetics dosing also does combined medication dosing so you can rapidly see the remaining maximum dose amounts and volumes based on what’s already been given for any concentration of local you plan to give.  It’s amazing… if you only get the app to use the calculator, it would be worth your time & effort.

Matthew Willis, DNP, CRNA has a background in finance, web and mobile design.  He received his undergraduate degree in nursing from Boise State University in 2014 and completed his doctor of nursing practice and anesthesia training at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in 2019.  He currently works as an independent anesthesia provider in Iowa and has a wife and 4 children.  

I reached out to Matthew after I made suggestion on content within the app and he graciously agreed to come on Anesthesia Guidebook to share his story.  Again, Matthew currently is not making any revenue off Master Anesthesia and I have no financial connection with Matthew or this app… this episode is just good ole’ storytelling with no conflicts of interest. 

App Store Link: 

https://apps.apple.com/app/id1550793078#?platform=iphone

Google Play Link:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.masteranesthesia

Website Link:

Landing Page

Facebook Group Link: 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/masteranesthesia

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Categories
Anesthesia Education Business/Finances

#35 – Asynchronous learning and the future of anesthesia education

This podcast follows up on the previous show which discussed free open access medical education (FOAM) and the use of social media in anesthesia education. Here, I discuss the power of asynchronous learning to shape the future of anesthesia education.

The power of asynchronous learning comes from the ability of content experts to produce something truly informative and engaging once and then make that widely available to learners over a prolonged span of time. 

The opportunity, the chance, the potential of asynchronous learning is to harness the best educators and minds to create engaging content to help raise the level of expertise of providers while reducing the upfront workload and cost of producing that content.  

Asynchronous learning challenges traditional paradigms of education. It brings up numerous questions for us to consider…

Why does every university need to have an expert in pharmacology on campus to deliver semester-long courses on anesthesia pharmacology year after year? 

Why do universities struggle to find and retain content experts when they could harness the power of asynchronous education to share a library of the best resources for cheaper tuition?

Why do universities, who charge astronomical tuition fees, then require their students to purchase third-party board preparation programs?  Shouldn’t the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition be enough to get students successfully over the hurdle of boards?

Why are continuing education conferences so boring and expensive? 

Why do continuing education conferences rarely improve clinical skills or change practice? 

Why are thousands of grand rounds presentations given every year across the US and only a very select few individuals who happen to show up hear what leading experts are saying?

Why does it take on average 17 years for new evidence to find its way into widespread practice?

Why do we too often put profits ahead of advancing our field and improving access to patient care?

We have the opportunity to redesign the way we do education in the future.  Harnessing technology to maximize the benefit of asynchronous learning can reduce costs and likely make education more efficient and effective.

Some of you are today’s thought leaders and content creators.  Some of you will be the content creators, professors, educators and clinical experts of the future.  How will you step into those roles?  How will you harness the technology available to us to create more compelling, more interesting and effective learning tools?

These are the questions that will help us redefine what is possible in the way we train anesthesia providers and build better continuing education.

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Categories
Anesthesia Education Business/Finances Preparing for Grad School/Residency

#34 – FOAM and social media in anesthesia education

Free open access medical education – or FOAM – is any medical educational content that’s shared freely on open access platforms, meaning the public can consume it without having to be a member of an organization or pay a subscription fee.  The reason it’s significant is that it brings evolving science & literature – and discussions around the art & science of medicine – into the hands of providers without the traditional paywalls that trade associations or peer-reviewed journals put up between you & their content in order to fund their work.  FOAM is all about the accessibility of information and given the rapid pace at which medical information evolves and podcasts, blogs & online journals can be updated, FOAM helps shape conversations around what’s happening right now in healthcare.  

It’s been said if you want to know the state of the literature 5-7 years ago, read the latest edition of any textbook.  If you want to know what was going on 2-3 years ago, read the print journal that just came to your mailbox.  And if you want to know what’s happening and changing right now, get on social media. 

In this episode, I discuss the history of FOAM and talk through the influence of social media in anesthesia education. We take a look at the incentives that shape the behavior of content producers in the social media world and look at ways of harnessing FOAM and social media platforms to leverage these tools for the greatest impact.

Resources:

Andrejco, K. (2017). Social Media in Nurse Anesthesia: A Model of a Reproducible Educational Podcast. AANA journal, 85(1).  Retrieved from https://www.aana.com/docs/default-source/aana-journal-web-documents-1/social-media-0217-pp10-16.pdf?sfvrsn=89cd48b1_6 

Chan, T. M., Stehman, C., Gottlieb, M., & Thoma, B. (2020). A short history of free open access medical education. the past, present, and future. ATS scholar, 1(2), 87-100. https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.34197/ats-scholar.2020-0014PS 

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