SMACC FOAM Q/A
One of the more experimental sessions at SMACC earlier this year was a free-form two hour session on FOAM that consisted of an ad hoc discussion involving some prominent creators of FOAM with the opportunity for audience interaction and questioning. Sometimes teetering on the verge of an AA-style meeting for FOAMaholics, the discussion will be of interest to anyone interested in online learning, especially that which is free and open access to everyone. Educational, entertaining and controversial — what more could you want?
The people on the sofas up on the SMACC stage were:
- Scott Weingart of EMCrit
- Joe Lex of Free Emergency Medicine Talks
- Simon Carley of StEmlyns
- Minh Le Cong of PHARM
- Oli Flower of ICN
- Mike Cadogan of LITFL
- and myself
We explored some key FOAM topics such as:
- The Evils of Social Media and the dangers of FOAM
- LEarning in and out of context
- FOAM is an adjunct, not a replacement for mentor-guided clinical experience
- Social media, information overload and keeping life in balance
- Information versus knowledge
- FOAM is more than free, it is open access and can be reused
- Engagement in FOAM – the tension between individuals and organisations
- Why is emergency medicine, even more so than intensive care, at the forefront of FOAM?
- Constraints on FOAM and medical social media in different parts of the world
- Does FOAM need to be peer reviewed?
- Copyright issues and fair use in FOAM
- Can blogs replace review articles?
- The role of FOAM in the developing world, and places where emergency medicine and critical care are developing
- What does social media mean for clinical research?
- How can we convert colleagues and students to FOAM?
- Getting academic and professional credit for creating FOAM
- Issues with patient confidentiality in FOAM and the use of clinical photographs
- FOAM, asynchronous learning and the flipped classroom
- FOAM versus Big Pharma
- FOAM and knowledge translation
- How does FOAM relate to the Colleges of various specialties?
- What does FOAM mean for medical students?
- FOAM as a means of contextual learning
Chris is an Intensivist and ECMO specialist at the Alfred ICU in Melbourne. He is also a Clinical Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University. He is a co-founder of the Australia and New Zealand Clinician Educator Network (ANZCEN) and is the Lead for the ANZCEN Clinician Educator Incubator programme. He is on the Board of Directors for the Intensive Care Foundation and is a First Part Examiner for the College of Intensive Care Medicine. He is an internationally recognised Clinician Educator with a passion for helping clinicians learn and for improving the clinical performance of individuals and collectives.
After finishing his medical degree at the University of Auckland, he continued post-graduate training in New Zealand as well as Australia’s Northern Territory, Perth and Melbourne. He has completed fellowship training in both intensive care medicine and emergency medicine, as well as post-graduate training in biochemistry, clinical toxicology, clinical epidemiology, and health professional education.
He is actively involved in in using translational simulation to improve patient care and the design of processes and systems at Alfred Health. He coordinates the Alfred ICU’s education and simulation programmes and runs the unit’s education website, INTENSIVE. He created the ‘Critically Ill Airway’ course and teaches on numerous courses around the world. He is one of the founders of the FOAM movement (Free Open-Access Medical education) and is co-creator of litfl.com, the RAGE podcast, the Resuscitology course, and the SMACC conference.
His one great achievement is being the father of three amazing children.
On Twitter, he is @precordialthump.
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