About Robert Cooney, MD MSMedEd

Chief Strategy Officer, 2018-20 ALiEM Chief Resident Incubator
Director of Faculty Development
Department of Emergency Medicine
Geisinger Medical Center

Teaching in the age of COVID-19: The learning management system

Given the epidemiological data from China and Italy, educators should be prepared for the likelihood that online learning will continue to be the norm for many weeks to months. Simply running disconnected weekly educational sessions without an overall organization will hinder educational success for learners. Learning Management Systems (LMS) are a tool that can support educational leaders with the delivery, assessment, and organization of learning.

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By Robert Cooney, MD MSMedEd|2020-04-02T13:55:37-07:00Mar 19, 2020|Academic, Administrative, COVID19, Medical Education|

Teaching in the age of COVID-19: Real-time video conferencing

As programs face unprecedented pressure to protect learners via social distancing, many will turn to video as their preferred method to continue delivering educational content. The need to do this in “real-time” makes conferencing applications an obvious choice for content delivery. Programs may already be familiar with this technology for conference calls, further lowering the bar for early adoption. Studies demonstrate the educational content via live video is at least as effective as a live lecture [1]. Further, they have been used to deliver additional content, such as small groups and simulation [2]. With current technology, these tools are widely available and easy to use for educators.

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By Robert Cooney, MD MSMedEd|2020-04-02T13:56:51-07:00Mar 17, 2020|Academic, Administrative, COVID19, Medical Education|

Teaching in the age of COVID-19: Teaching with tech while socially distancing

With the arrival of SARS-CoV2 (COVID-19) in North America, programs are facing the need to reconsider how they deliver didactic education to their learners. The ACGME only allows for 20% of the curriculum to be delivered in an asynchronous fashion. The remainder is delivered through traditional didactic means, including “small-group sessions, such as break-out groups, serially repeated conference sessions, practicum sessions, or large-group planned educational activities.” With mandatory social distancing likely to become standard practice, we present multiple solutions to bridge the gap between live, in-person conferences and asynchronous materials.

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By Robert Cooney, MD MSMedEd|2020-04-02T13:57:06-07:00Mar 17, 2020|Academic, Administrative, COVID19, Medical Education|

The Leader’s Library: Dare To Lead | Curated Summary of the Discussion

In April 2019, a group of intrepid readers embarked on an adventure together: the debut session of The Leader’s Library, ALiEM’s new career development book club. Learners and instructors from around the world read and discussed Dr. Brené Brown’s newest book, Dare to Lead, on a 5 day journey via Slack. Each day had its own theme (Rumbling with Vulnerability, Values, Empathy and Shame, Learning to Rise, and Toolkit), and the asynchronous discussion was robust. A day-by-day breakdown of our conversation, along with tangible takeaways and recommendations for further reading, is summarized below.

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By Robert Cooney, MD MSMedEd|2019-09-03T12:44:06-07:00Jun 14, 2019|Book Club, Leaders Library, Professional Development|

ALiEM Book Club: Creative Confidence

What is your definition of creativity? Are you innovative? Can doctors be creative and innovative? The authors Tom and David Kelley set out with their book “Creative Confidence” [Amazon link] to convince you of the importance of creativity and how to harness its power. For anyone who is looking for a little inspiration, “Creative Confidence” will not only change your perspective but also inspire you to go out and change the world through the introduction of Design Thinking.

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By Robert Cooney, MD MSMedEd|2021-03-26T10:04:13-07:00Nov 20, 2016|Book Club|

MEdIC Series | The Case of the Catastrophic Classroom – Expert Review and Curated Commentary

The Case of the Catastrophic Classroom outlined a scenario where a junior faculty member is tasked with revamping didactics at her institution. We joined Jill as she walked through various phases of discovery, building empathy for her stakeholders. This case was subsequently discussed at the CORD Academic Assembly 2016 (#CORDaa16) where 4 teams competed to design novel solutions for this complicated problem.

This month the ALIEM Design team, led by Drs. Teresa Chan (@TChanMD), Catherine Patocka (@patockaem), Jeremy Voros (@vorosmd) co-hosted a design challenge with CORD’s Dr. Rob Cooney (@EMeducation) where a keen bunch of creative medical educators participated to identify the problems and pitch possible solutions that might work for Jill. Their discussion and solutions were based on the insights and suggestions from the ALiEM community. We are proud to present to you the Curated Community Commentary and our Design Hackathon team solutions. Thank-you to all our participants for contributing to the very rich discussions last week.

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By Robert Cooney, MD MSMedEd|2019-02-19T18:57:58-08:00Mar 18, 2016|MEdIC series, Medical Education|

Trick of the Trade: Increasing students responses to the differential diagnosis

Anyone who teaches medicine asks students to list their differential diagnosis when discussing a new clinical case. It’s also part of several models for education including the One-Minute Preceptor and SNAPPS.

For the most part, students are good at coming up with answers to the differential, but what do you do when they strike out? Or what if the answer is always the same, i.e. chest pain = myocardial infarction?

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By Robert Cooney, MD MSMedEd|2016-11-20T11:17:15-08:00Aug 25, 2010|Medical Education, Tricks of the Trade|

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