Why FOAM? Facts, Fallacies and Foibles
Still not convinced that you should be involved in FOAM?
In this talk I explore the facts, fallacies and foibles of ‘Free Open Access Med(ical edu)cation’ and hope to convince you that FOAM cannot be ignored and that you have a moral imperative to get involved.
I recorded the video for the first Slovenian emergency medicine trainees’ conference (@SolaUrgence on Twitter), being held at the University Clinical Centre in Maribor, 6th and 7th December 2013. This talk formed the basis for a review article subsequently published in Emergency Medicine Australasia titled ‘Free Open-Access Medical education (FOAM) for emergency physicians’.
Here are the slides:
References and Links
Journal articles
- Berger E. Web 2.0 in emergency medicine; specialty embracing the future of medical communication. Ann Emerg Med. 2012 Apr;59(4):21-23A. PubMed PMID: 22553857.
- Greene J. Social Media and Physician Learning: Is It All Twitter? Ann Emerg Med. 2013;Nov;62(5):11-13A
- Prober CG, Heath C. Lecture halls without lectures–a proposal for medical education. N Engl J Med. 2012 May 3;366(18):1657-9. PMID: 22551125.
- Reiter DA, Lakoff DJ, Trueger NS, Shah KH. Individual interactive instruction: an innovative enhancement to resident education. Ann Emerg Med. 2013 Jan;61(1):110-3. PMID: 22520994.
- Shaw G. Don’t Call It Social Media: FOAM and the Future of Medical Education. Emergency Medicine News Feb 2013 doi: 10.1097/01.EEM.0000427050.81739.a1
- Young PJ, Nickson CP, Gantner DC. Can social media bridge the gap between research and practice? Crit Care Resusc. 2013 Dec;15(4):257-9. PMID: 24289505.
Key blogposts and webpages (mostly from LITFL)
- What is FOAM?
- The flipped classroom might just be the future of medicine (KevinMD)
- From Hippocrates To Osler to FOAM
- EMCC Blog update
- EMCC Podcast update
- Information Overload
- Is FOAM at fault?
- GoogleFOAM | The FOAM Search Engine
- NEJM Decolonization Paper: You’ve changed the Stats! (ICN)
- Peter Safar’s Laws for the Navigation of Life
- The LITFL Review
- We don’t need no FOAM Curriculum
- precordialthump (that’s me!)
- #FOAMed
- #FOAMcc
- #FOAMped
Suggested FOAM resources for Emergency Physicians and Critical Care doctors
- Academic Life in Emergency Medicine
- CanadiEM
- BroomeDocs (remote general practice blog not included in the talk, but well worth checking out for its emergency medicine content)
- Critical Care Reviews
- DerangedPhysiology.com (darn it, I missed this out in the talk… sorry!)
- Don’t Forget the Bubbles
- EMCrit
- Emergency Medicine Literature of Note
- EM Pills
- EMJClub Emergency Medicine Podcast (great journal club from Washington University — not included in the talk)
- Free Emergency Medicine Talks
- Intensive Care Network
- Maryland CC Project
- PulmCCM.org
- Resus.ME
- Skeptics Guide to Emergency Medicine
- SMACC and the SMACC podcast
- St Emlyn’s
- The Poison Review (I missed this out in the talk… sorry Leon!)
- Trauma Professional’s Blog (I missed this too — sorry Michael!)
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.
| INTENSIVE | RAGE | Resuscitology | SMACC