Open Access21st century medical education: critical decision-making guidance through smartphone/tablet applications—the Lothian pilot
Author(s) -
Oliver Prescott,
Eoghan Millar,
Graham R. Nimmo,
Ann Wales,
Simon Edgar
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
bmj simulation and technology enhanced learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.292
H-Index - 9
ISSN - 2056-6697
DOI - 10.1136/bmjstel-2016-000157
Subject(s) - enthusiasm , service (business) , service delivery framework , clinical decision support system , medicine , changeover , test (biology) , medical education , medical emergency , decision support system , computer science , psychology , business , social psychology , marketing , artificial intelligence , telecommunications , paleontology , transmission (telecommunications) , biology
In starting a new clinical placement, doctors in training must become aware of and apply standard operating procedures, as well as learn guidelines, simultaneously adjusting to new patient presentations, environments and personnel. This transition is thought to correlate with increased risk to patient safety, notably during the annual UK changeover. Mobile technologies are increasingly commonplace throughout the National Health Service. Clinicians at all levels are employing medical technology and applications (apps) with minimal local guidance. We set out to test the feasibility and utility of offering medical apps to out-of-hours (OOH) practitioners as an aid to clinical decision-making at point of patient contact. The theorised benefits were threefold: clinical education-real time support for clinical decision-making as one component of deliberate practice to build expert performance; decreased administrative burden-updating and accessing current guidelines; and service development-readily accessible feedback from users.