I have blogged, argued, illustrated, and dissected collaborative medical learning and its implications, or rather its lack of complications, throughout this summer. By no means should this suggest it to be a perfect science, pardon the pun, but rather, simply, to suggest that it may be slightly more organized than collaborative freshman composition exercises. Student maturity, experience, and general acumen may be the reason. However, for a last post, I wanted to highlight clinician to patient collaborative learning.
A 2008 article by Martinez-Sarriegui et al. in Spain, illuminates a "shared care" (1) system that allows patients to log-on and perform the following tasks:
1. upload blood sugar readings and receive physician-lead medical support,
2. mentor new patients/be mentored to,
3. participate in group support,
4. change appointments,
5. chat about questions and other related interests.
Their conclusion is that "patient intervention for data retrieval and communication" are optimized (17). It sounds wonderful; however, the interesting part is that this is based on 'pre-iPad' technologies!!!! Telemedicine is looking even brighter!
Hi, Rich...
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that that the future looks promising with the advancements of technology supporting communication and interaction between stakeholders. Blogging is far from perfect yet it opens an avenue of discussion making collaborative work possible. New systems coming out are going to improve that process even more and we as scholars need to embrace the future now. I highlight this last point as the danger we face is one of potential bureaucratic and institutional lethargy and resistance to the adoption of new technologies. As a group using long distance learning we stand at the forefront of academic change. Collaboration among a diverse group of people influenced by their current environments happens. I believe that the international and cultural differences made available through this program assist in the building of global network of current and future research. We also have the capacity to shape the nature of collaborative research and academic studies, which can be a model for other institutions. While some may feel uncomfortable using these processes there is a world of opportunity being forged out of systems that we use.