Learning is a social activity.

By Helena Filipe

Twitter is a free social network consisting of a microblog allowing users to send and receive short (140 characters, maximum) messages designated as tweets.

The concept can be visualized as a flock of birds flying in the same direction, following a common interest or purpose. This can be brought to the context of ophthalmic education.

Suppose an ophthalmic subspecialty expert posting (tweeting) an innovative idea or concept clearly grounded on solid scientific medical evidence. Imagine that this scientific foundation relies on a recent scientific publication present in PubMed and the tweet contains its link.

The explained model is what Prof. Bertil Damato proposes in his Bertil Damato@eyemelanoma : Click here to view the page

A statement solidly grounded in a scientific article identified by its link in PubMed is an elegant invitation to learn and be current with the latest content, in this case on melanoma.

The educator is graciously sharing, facilitating updated knowledge coming from an unquestionable reliable source (both the person and the supportive didactic resource) to all of those interested in the topic. Prof. Damato´s tweets main aim is at his fellow’s medical education.

Certainly this methodology can be used in other ophthalmic subspecialties and applied to different levels of learning including continuous medical education/ continuous professional development (CME/CPD).

We will be leveraging previous online educators and learners skills and collaborative CME/CPD. Learning will be time and place independent and focused on following worldwide renowned experts in each one´s own specific ophthalmic field of interest. As a blogging activity it promotes reflection and interaction.

There is good explanation about the Twitter´s general concept as there are also directions on how to create a Twitter account in clicking here

The idea is to follow key thinkers in one´s own field of expertise and/or be followed as one ophthalmic expert. Receiving and sending tweets: small, concise and complete pieces of content scientifically grounded will present a window to collaboratively build ophthalmic knowledge learning from the best.

Learning can be seriously fun!

Improving Teaching in the Clinic with tablet devices.

By Dr. Karl Golnik

Teaching in the outpatient clinic is one of the most effective ways to ensure learning
occurs. The resident is highly engaged in the process of evaluating patients and actively synthesizing information to achieve a differential diagnosis. However, it can be difficult to provide effective teaching because residents and teaching faculty tend to busy in their attempts to care for the many patients seen in one day. Thus, I always try and sit down at lunch and at the end of the day to discuss at least several
interesting patients seen throughout the course of the day. Additionally, I try and make important points throughout the day as patients are evaluated.

I find my tablet device to be a useful adjunct to my clinical teaching. I store all my clinical photographs (e.g. optic discs, MRIs) and videos (e.g. pupils, eye movements) on the tablet. As it is immediately ready, little time is spent demonstrating key findings and showing other examples of the entities encountered in clinic on any day.

Residents find it is valuable to see other examples of the same entity or photos/videos of conditions in the differential diagnosis of the clinical findings at hand. This approach could be accomplished with a laptop computer as well but the immediacy and portability of the tablet makes this an ideal technology for improving teaching and learning in the clinic.

More on posting your conferences to the web

By Dr. Eduardo Mayorga


On a previous post we showed you ways to post your presentations with audio to the web. In that post we covered "AuthorStream", a free but rather limited web based software and "Articulate" , probably today´s gold standard for developing web presentations, quizzes and interactions but that comes with a high price tag.

Today we would like to draw your attention to "Snap" by Lectora.

"Snap" allows you to convert your presentation to a Flash format so that  you can upload it for web viewing. The software allows you to insert videos, interactions and quizzes. It integrates into PowerPoint where it adds a tab at the top menu of PowerPoint.

Having  similar features to Articulate, it's price is, at this time, 10 times lower.  "Articulate" carries some fine tuning features that "Snap" doesn't, but "Snap" can be an very good option if you have budget constrictions. 

Those interested in building and sharing lectures with other residencies programs may be also interested in learning about the "Web Based Teaching" course project that we believe will be finished by the end of this year.

Use of Technology tools for teaching in the Clinic! The EMR way

 by Dr. Anthony Vipin ,L V Prasad Eye Institute

Technology is evidently becoming an integral part of our personal lives today. As medical professionals we are increasingly expected to adapt to the latest forms of delivery of healthcare, especially documentation of patient care and clinical records.

Electronic Medical Record Systems, popularly abbreviated as EMR are at various stages of implentation around the world today. While we see a more refined approach in the developed nations, the sheer numbers in the developing nations is an uphill task for implementation.

Nevertheless, the variety and the sheer numbers add rich dividends in the long run for high quality research and statistical analysis in the developing countries. We have started implementing our Home grown EMR and wanted to share with you all how we have integrated Teaching into the EMR.

The following users interact with our EMR which enables teaching at various levels
- Consultants
- Fellows
- Residents
- Optometrists

1. The structured forms in various departments are crystallized from years of expertise of the practicing Ophthalmologists. This enables teaching opportunities to all users as they understand the correct format of Clinical Evaluation for various diseases.

Structured detailed forms

2. Ability to view various protocols of disease management serves as a great tool to update one’s knowledge. It also aids in clinical decision making in certain instances.

3. We have intelligently incorporated various PDFs and Flash Tools which serve as excellent educational resource. Ex: Color Vision Charts, Classification Systems, Drawing Tools with various canvases.

Integrated PDFs

Flash Tools

4. Allowing the User to be creative in documenting figures has made it more exciting for us. Standardized Canvases and Color Coding has helped train the students in correct representation of diagrams during clinical evaluation.

5. The use of Mandatory functions while saving the form has helped the user understand the importance of taking certain History. Ex: If Diabetes Mellitus is checked in the personal history, the documentation of Evidence of Diabetic Retinopathy in retinal examination becomes mandatory.

6. The ability of Media like Photos, Videos incorporated into the EMR system adds in a rich experience to the users while counseling patients and explaining plan of management.

Images and Video

7. Prompting the user during Refraction value entry serves as an effective way to correct mistakes during power entry of spectacles. Mentioning the correct signs and axis and automatically calculating the transpositions serves as a simple way of training the users.

8. As the Institute has patients coming from different parts of the Country and the world, the ability to communicate effectively with the patient during History Taking is crucial. Our EMR incorporates the common Language sentences to enable better communication.

Currently eyeSmart is managing a range of centers from a Tertiary Center of Excellence, Secondary Centers in rural areas to Urban City Centers of L V Prasad Eye Institute, India.

The ability to refine the system further to assist the caregiver in delivering cutting edge documentation is what drives us to build better functions and health management systems.

To make Learning and Teaching Ophthalmology in the Clinic more fun and enjoyable is our Goal using Technology!

Learning anywhere: Podcasts to the rescue.

by Dr. Eduardo Mayorga

There are many situations in which you might have the feeling you are wasting your time, but at the same time you can't avoid them, such as when you're standing in a line, commuting to work by car or on public transportation, at the doctor's waiting room, at airports. There are also times where even if you do not feel you're wasting your time, as when you jog, workout or ride your bike, you might feel guilty because you have a lot of topics you need or want to update on, but still, you are using this time to exercise.

In all these situations, podcasts can help. If you are not familiar with podcasts you may want to watch the following video.

There are many programs that you can use to search for and organize your podcasts. As mentioned in the video, the one I like best is Itunes.  If you don't have it already installed in you computer, you may download it clicking here.

Open Itunes. At the top click on "Podcasts"

At the top right search box type "ophthalmology"

Then, at the left menu, click on "Podcasts" again

You will be presented with a number of podcasts on ophthalmology.

If you click on the number of the podcast you will start listening to it. If you click on the third column,  "Podcast", you will be taken to the page of the podcast's author.

One of my favorites is Dr. Joshua Young's "As seen from here". Joshua is a great interviewer. He makes the practical questions you would like to do.

When you get to the author's page, on the left, you will get the opportunity to subscribe to the author's podcasts. 

If you do so, the most recent podcast will download and from then on, every time a new podcast is published, it will download to you computer. From there you will be able to copy it to any mobile device. Mobile devices with internet connection will many times allow you to download podcasts directly to your device.

If you know of any good ophthalmology podcasts, please use the comment form to let us know about them.   

Finding images to enhance your presentations

by Dr. Eduardo Mayorga



The brain has 2 kinds of memory: a long term memory where what we know is stored and a short term memory.

When we learn, information enters through visual and phonetic areas into the working area where it´s processed, related to previous knowledge and finally stored to long term memory.

There is a continuos enconding and retrival proccess going on all time, between working memory and long term memory.

Working memory has a very small capacity, it can only hold from 5 to 9 pieces of information at a time.

Working memory has also 2 substorage areas, one for visual information amd one for phonetic information. One way to strech working memory is to use both storage areas.

The practical application of this theory is that when making presentations you should use visuals (images, animations, videos) to facilitate the understanding, processing and final storage of the facts or concepts you want to transmit to the audience.

Most of us use PowerPoint to present and usually add text to the slides. Eventhough, limited short bulleted content can be of some help to learning, text goes into the memory using the phonetic channel so soon your speech and text on the slide overload the phonetic channel, but your visual channel is not fully used.

Every time we finish preparing a slide we should ask to ourselves at least 2 questions:

1) Which words in the text could be replaced or enhanced by a image.

2) What part of what I will be saying, can be enhanced with an image.

These questions will probably bring to your mind many images. So: How can we get the images we need?

Today it´s very easy to find images on the web using Google. The problem is we are usually not allowed to use these images without the permission of the author.

Following is a list of places where you can get images. Some free and some paid. (Many very inexpensive)
This list was originally posted by David Anderson at the "E-learning Heroes" blog.

Most popular stock image sites

• Clipart.com
• Fotolia
• istockphoto
• Microsoft Office Online
• Photos.com
• Shutterstock
• Thinkstock

Free stock image sites:

• 4FreePhotos
• Caricature King
• Dreamstime
• Every Stock Photo
• Flickr Commons
• Free Digital Photos
• Free Historical Stock Photos
• Free Photos Bank
• Free Vector
• FreeFoto
• FreeRange
• Image Base
• Imageafter
• Kavewall.com
• Nations Illustrated
• Openphoto
• Photogen
• Picapp
• Pixel Perfect Digital
• Pixmac
• Public Domain Pictures.net
• Public-Domain Photos.com
• stock.xchng
• Stockvault
• Toasto
• Turbo Photo
• Unprofound
• Vector Art
• Wikimedia Commons

Pay-per-image, bundle or subscription:

• 123RF
• Animation Factory
• Big Stock Photo
• Clipart.com
• crestock.com
• Cutcaster
• eLearning Art
• Fotolia
• Depositphotos
• fotosearch
• Getty Images
• Graphic River
• iClipArt
• istockphoto
• Kavewall.com
• Morguefile
• Narrator Files
• Photos.com
• Pixmac
• Presenter Media
• shutterstock
• Thinkstock
• TrellisCreative
• Turbo Photo
• Vector Art