Ethel Bullitt had a severe case of medical student amnesia. After two years of cramming her brain with thousands of new biomedical terms, images of cells, symptoms of diseases and drug interactions, her memory had turned to mush. In a few days, the 25-year-old Tufts University medical student would have to report to her first clinical rotation in surgery. Her worst fear: forgetting everything she'd ever learned.
Why Tufts' health sciences database earns honors
Tufts' Health Sciences Database sets the standard for medical school knowledge management systems. Medical, veterinary and dental students use the website to study. Among its benefits, the system helps students master course material, keeps the curriculum up-to-date and increases organizational efficiency.
Bullitt began second-guessing herself: What is the proper way to listen to a patient's heart and lungs? What are the proper steps in examining the knee? So before she ever stepped into a teaching hospital, Bullitt went to her school's website and logged on to the Health Sciences Database -- a virtual medical student's brain containing lectures, lab slides, anatomy illustrations and her own notes -- and reviewed physical diagnosis procedures. "It's great to be able to have this kind of backup when you're feeling a little shaky, because surgery rotation is a grueling experience," she says. "You have to determine how the patient is doing, and you need to be sure you are right. The surgeons are basing some of their decisions on what you tell them."
Bullitt's experience is one example of how the Health Sciences Database is transforming the way Tufts trains physicians, dentists and veterinarians. No other medical school in the country -- and Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston is among the top-ranked -- has created this kind of KM system for students and faculty. Tufts credits the system with helping students to master course material more easily, keeping the curriculum up-to-date and increasing organizational efficiency. The system is becoming a national model for medical education.
Where Google Chrome security fails: the password I heard mention that the Chrome OS will have some sort of encryption available a la bitlocker. If it's possible to encrypt personal data using another password or key, then it may have potential for very secure data.... And Ubuntu has an 'encrypt home directory' option, perhaps google should follow suit.
- Dann
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