The Horse Boy--attending to the stories our patients tell us.

In the summer of 2007, Rupert Isaacson and Kirsten Neff set off to Mongolia on an extraordinary journey to heal their 7-year old autistic son. Their story was captured on film by a small crew, and both the resulting documentary, The Horse Boy, and the associated book have reached a wide audience. For those involved in psychiatric education, the film represents a valuable opportunity to explore a range of relevant clinical and ethical issues with their learners, including an introduction to the world of complementary and alternative medicine and the emerging discipline of narrative medicine. Perhaps most importantly, The Horse Boy is an impetus for health professionals to consider their own responsibilities when determined patients in their care undertake such remarkable quests to heal themselves or their loved ones.

APA summit on medical student education task force on informatics and technology: steps to enhance the use of technology in education through faculty development, funding and change management.

OBJECTIVE: This article provides an overview of how trainees, faculty, and institutions use technology for acquiring knowledge, skills, and attitudes for practicing modern medicine. METHOD: The authors reviewed the literature on medical education, technology, and change, and identify the key themes and make recommendations for implementing technology in medical education. RESULTS: Administrators and faculty should initially assess their own competencies with technology and then develop a variety of teaching methods that use technology to improve their curricula. Programs should decrease the general knowledge-based content of curricula and increase the use of technology for learning skills. For programs to be successful, they must address faculty development, change management, and funding. CONCLUSIONS: Willingness for change, collaboration, and leadership at all levels are essential factors for successfully implementing technology.

Workplace injury management: using new technology to deliver and evaluate physician continuing medical education.

OBJECTIVE: Physicians typically receive little continuing medical education (CME) about their role in workplace injury management as well as on workplace injuries and disease. Although new technologies may help educate physicians in these areas, careful evaluation is required, given the understudied nature of these interventions. The objective of this study is to evaluate two promising new technologies to deliver CME (online learning and videoconferencing) and to compare the effectiveness of these delivery methods to traditional CME interventions (large urban traditional conference lectures and small group local face-to-face outreach) in their impact on physician knowledge related to workplace injury management. METHODS: This study utilized a prospective, controlled evaluation of two educational programs for BC physicians: 1) The Diagnosis and Management of Lateral Epicondylitis; and 2) Is Return-to-Work Good Medicine? Each educational module was delivered in each of four ways (Outreach Visit, Videoconference Session, Conference Lecture, Online) and physicians self-selected their participation--both in terms of topic and delivery method. Questionnaires related to knowledge as well as learner attitude and satisfaction were administered prior (pre-test) and following (post-test) all educational sessions. RESULTS: 581 physician encounters occurred as a result of the educational interventions and a significant percentage of the physicians participated in the research per se (i.e. there were 358 completed sets of pre-test and post-test 'Knowledge' questionnaires). Overall the results showed that the developed training programs increased physicians' knowledge of both Lateral Epicondylitis and the physician's role in Return-To-Work planning as reflected in improved post-test performance when compared to pre-test scores. Furthermore, videoconferencing and online training were at least as effective as conference lectures and instructor-led small group outreach sessions in their impact on physician knowledge. CONCLUSIONS: Use of effective videoconferencing and online learning activities will increase physician access to quality CME related to workplace injury management and will overcome access barriers intrinsic to types of CME interventions based on instructor-student face-to-face interactions.

APA Summit on Medical Student Education Task Force on Informatics and Technology: learning about computers and applying computer technology to education and practice.

OBJECTIVE: This article provides a brief overview of important issues for educators regarding medical education and technology. METHODS: The literature describes key concepts, prototypical technology tools, and model programs. A work group of psychiatric educators was convened three times by phone conference to discuss the literature. Findings were presented to and input was received from the 2005 Summit on Medical Student Education by APA and the American Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry. RESULTS: Knowledge of, skills in, and attitudes toward medical informatics are important to life-long learning and modern medical practice. A needs assessment is a starting place, since student, faculty, institution, and societal factors bear consideration. Technology needs to "fit" into a curriculum in order to facilitate learning and teaching. CONCLUSION: Learning about computers and applying computer technology to education and clinical care are key steps in computer literacy for physicians.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the workplace: a descriptive study of workers experiencing PTSD resulting from work injury.

In view of the relatively understudied status of work-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), this study retrospectively examined 44 workers whose claims were accepted for workers' compensation benefits in the absence of significant coexisting physical injuries. The majority of workers (82%) directly experienced the traumatic event while the rest witnessed the event. Over half (54%) of those directly experiencing the event were involved in armed robberies, whereas 38% were physically or verbally assaulted in nonrobbery situations. Almost half of the workers were assigned a coexisting mood or anxiety diagnosis. Psychoactive medication was prescribed to 66% of workers, and 93% of all workers received some form of psychological/psychiatric treatment. Twenty-three percent of the group received vocational rehabilitation assistance and only 43% returned to their previous job with the accident employer. Findings suggest that work-related PTSD is both complex and disabling and merits further investigation.