Be a great speaker: 10 practical pearls (part 1 of 5)

Have you seen how some speakers can seemingly just give AMAZING talks? It actually takes a lot of hard work to make impactful talks look easy and effortless.

The CORD Academy for Scholarship in Education in Emergency Medicine recently has started the “Distinguished Educator’s Coaching Program” to help established educators improve their presentation skills. The concept of coaching for mastery is a hot topic, often discussed by Dr. Atul Gawande (surgeon at Brigham and Women’s and professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health).

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2026-06-16T16:01:56-07:00Mar 16, 2013|Medical Education|

Is it time to trash the stethoscope? The age of ultrasound

Is the physical exam a relic of the past, because our tools are relics of a prior era?

It is important to do and teach a thorough physical exam. I cautioned against the overreliance on diagnostic testing in lieu of a physical exam, which can be initially burdensome and prolonged. But perhaps our difficulty with the physical exam is not the exam itself, but the tools that we have at our disposal to perform an exam, rather than the exam itself.

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By Nikita Joshi, MD|2018-01-30T01:59:00-08:00Mar 15, 2013|Medical Education, Ultrasound|

Simulation cases: How to write the storyboard

Last week I wrote about the important components in writing a simulation case. It is an exhausting list, but the thoroughness pays off.

The next big task is writing the actual case storyboard, which can be done in many ways. All revolve around the concept of action and reaction. The key to a well written simulation case is understanding the actions that the learners will take, the actions that they should take, the actions they shouldn’t take.

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By Nikita Joshi, MD|2016-11-10T13:28:42-08:00Mar 2, 2013|Medical Education, Simulation|

Built a 20-person worldwide educator panel in two hours

Yesterday I had the pleasure of sharing my thoughts to an enthusiastic crowd of UCSF preclinical medical students on one of my favorite topics “Technology and Social Media in Emergency Medicine”. This is the perfect target audience to teach about developing a workflow habit for keeping up with digital information, since they are only starting to grow their clinical knowledge foundation.

On the morning of my noon talk, I regretted not recruiting some fellow FOAMed (Free Open Access Meducation) supporters to email me their thoughts about why social media is here to stay in medical education. How great would it have been to share the collective thoughts of leaders in this area?

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By Michelle Lin, MD|2019-01-28T22:04:39-08:00Feb 28, 2013|Medical Education, Social Media & Tech|

MOOC: Clinical problem solving with Dr. Lucey

According to Wikipedia, MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Course, was coined by Dave Cormier (@davecormier) in 2008 during a course called “Connectivism and Connective Knowledge” in a course led by George Siemens (@gsiemens) and Stephen Downes (@oldaily). All three are educators from Canada who specialize in online learning, learning and technology, and connectivism. As the name implies the course is open to thousands of people online. Although thousands of people sign up only a very small percentage finish the course.

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By Javier Benitez, MD|2018-01-30T01:59:04-08:00Feb 23, 2013|Medical Education|

Writing a Medical Simulation Case

It can be a daunting task to write a medical simulation cases. Regardless of prior experience in simulation, writing cases is a different skill set than programming or working a high fidelity simulator. It’s more similar to writing a play– at times an impromptu play!

What is a Medical Simulation Case?

It usually entails a patient encounter with a healthcare provider (learner) where an event occurs, and the learner is expected to perform actions. After some time, or after certain actions are performed, the facilitator stops the simulation, and debriefing ensues.

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By Nikita Joshi, MD|2016-11-11T18:40:57-08:00Feb 22, 2013|Medical Education, Simulation|

A Tea-Steeping or i-Doc Model for Medical Education?

There was a great article written by Dr. Brian Hodges (@BDHodges1) and published in Academic Medicine¹ in 2010. Dr. Cunningham (@amcunningham) provided the link via Twitter in a discussion about different models of competence in medical education.

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By Javier Benitez, MD|2016-11-11T18:41:09-08:00Feb 17, 2013|Education Articles, Medical Education|