Is there a place for music in medical school?

Music permeates the medical literature regarding disease therapy. However, there are only few articles concerning music as a tool for development of cultural competency and interpersonal relations. We share our experience of forming a musical act of students and faculty at a medical school. We believe that this group has encouraged medical humanism and enhanced communication in the learning environment.

Using a media centre to facilitate team-based learning.

Team-based learning is a relatively new educational approach in which learning occurs in three phases. Team-based learning is so named because in the third and final phase, students are organized into teams to participate in a classroom team-based learning session. In the Department of Anesthesiology at Boston University Medical Center, a multi-purpose Media Centre is used to facilitate the team-based learning approach. This Media Centre facilitates the creation and study of team-based learning educational materials distributed through a course website.

Using digital media to keep anesthesia history alive.

Multimedia applications have been developed to explain many aspects of anesthesiology, including anesthesia machines, cardiopulmonary bypass systems, airway management, anesthetic pharmacology, regional anesthesia, and more recently, the history of the specialty. This article describes how computer-assisted instruction and multimedia have made it possible for an anesthesia department in a teaching hospital to become involved in the preservation, publication, and distribution of historically related anesthesia materials. The production of a digital video disc (DVD) based on the career of Leroy D. Vandam is discussed to illustrate the value of digital media in preserving, rejuvenating, and distributing anesthesia-related historical materials.

Leroy D Vandam, MD: an anesthesia journey.

Leroy D Vandam, MD was a remarkable man--an intricate amalgamation of an artist, scientist, and physician. He was a bastion of medical historical knowledge. Dr Vandam became a most influential anesthesiologist, some say, a giant. He was an example of someone who, with resolve, overcame adversity. His artwork is displayed in countless places, and several of his paintings form part of the Wood Library Museum Heritage Series. Dr Vandam was first a surgeon, but he abandoned surgery and pursued a career in anesthesiology under the leadership of Robert Dripps. He completed his residency training at the University of Pennsylvania and joined its staff in 1949. When he arrived at Brigham and Women's Hospital in the 1950s as director of anesthesia, he embarked on one of the most illustrious careers in American anesthesiology. Dr Vandam published more than 250 original articles, chapters, abstracts, and other reports on a wide variety of subjects including history, art, and pharmacology. His classic article on the complications of neuroaxial blocks is a seminal work in anesthesiology. This article describes how an anesthesiologist who shared an interest with Dr Vandam in the history of anesthesiology came to produce a movie based on his career, the evolution of anesthesia equipment, and the transformation of our specialty.

Using Microsoft producer to facilitate web-based learning in an anesthesiology training programme.

Computerized multimedia teaching methods, including web-based learning, have become popular because the learner controls the content, the time, and place of learning. The purpose of this article is to describe specifically how a clinical department is using Microsoft Producer to convert PowerPoint presentations into Internet-ready multimedia lectures. The importance of these Internet-ready multimedia lectures to the didactic activities of an anesthesiology residency programme is also discussed.