Well, Mel Herbert, Aaron Bright, and the folks from EMRAP have done it again…Folks….I give you….HippoEM
What, you might ask, is HippoEM?
HippoEM is a brand new project that covers board review in emergency medicine for residents (physicians-in-training). HippoEM also digs deeper and covers many topics for the practical needs of physicians in practice (procedural stuff, approach to various real-life situations, and higher level stuff). The thought behind the creation of this video product is that it is a fun and exciting way of teaching and learning. Here is how it works. First, the entire curriculum in emergency medicine is covered. Speakers cover each of the topics in residency education. The speakers are filmed, and the slides that cover the topics are incorporated into the final video. The cool thing about EMRAP and the Hippo folks is that they integrate other video inputs (e.g. from Mel Herbert and Aaron Bright) into the final video product. it’s kind of like watching an episode of The Soup.
There is a trend in medical education, and really in education as a whole, to develop whiteboard videos (kind of like the Khan Academy videos) to teach “from a distance.” If well done, like the EMRAP products, these types of videos have the potential to do several things for us in education: 1. Potentially replace live conferences (not all, but some) 2. Invigorate learners and “move beyond the textbook.” To me, this is perhaps the biggest utility of putting together videos like this.
The folks at HippoEM are in the process of developing an entire library of videos that cover the gamut of emergency medicine education for residents and for practicing emergency physicians. So, instead of having to travel somewhere and take a course, you can pay for the product and enjoy and learn from the comfort of your own home. The same group of brilliant educators have already developed and implemented an online course for physician assistants (HippoPA). Check out the website to see how it works.
So, who cares? Why is this important? Several reasons. 1. Really smart and talented folks are currently developing online courses like HippoEM and HippoPA. These will definitely compete with live courses. If done well, like EMRAP, they are better done and MORE entertaining than going to a live course. 2. For those of us in education, we must realize that textbooks and boring lectures are dying–right before our eyes. If we are to excite our learners and train the future of medicine, not just emergency medicine, we need to move our teaching efforts to venues that learners are flocking to…and video lectures, online courses, etc. seems to be where our learners are migrating.
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