iPad revolution for Weill Cornell Medical students

Weill Cornell Medical College students will now have a wealth of medical information and educational tools at their fingertips. Starting this fall 2011 semester, all incoming first- and second-year students are being provided with a new iPad 2 in place of the printed course notes and texts used by most students around the country.

Students will now be able to download course materials, see video or hear audio recordings of lectures, submit electronic course evaluations, access their grades, collaborate with other students, and save their notes and coursework.

"I am very proud that Weill Cornell is one of the first medical colleges in the country to embrace this technology," says Dr. Carol Storey-Johnson, senior associate dean of education at Weill Cornell Medical College. "The iPad will open a world of new learning opportunities for students and dramatically expand the way we train and educate a new generation of physicians. "

"Along with being an amazing educational tool, the iPad tablets will give students an advantage as the health care industry increasingly embraces electronic systems," says Jason Korenkiewicz, assistant dean of education administration at Weill Cornell Medical College, who helped to spearhead the movement to iPad devices. "The paperless iPad is also a green alternative, saving about 2 million pages and copies without being any more expensive."

Students are giving the device high marks. "Some of us were apprehensive about how the iPad would fit into our learning model, but the response has been extremely positive and quickly won over several of the students who were resistant to changing their study habits," says Weill Cornell student Vinay Patel, who was part of a pilot group that tested the device during the spring 2011 semester.

"What's so exciting about this technology is that it reinforces learning and retention of information through a variety of multimedia," Korenkiewicz says.

For instance, students will use interactive apps on their iPad tablets to see animated 3-D molecular models of different proteins and compounds. The device's advanced graphics allow students to view molecular structures with depth, rather than as a flat illustration on a sheet of paper, helping them to better understand how the structures function in the body.

An app called "Unbound Medicine" is a medical database for diseases, medications and diagnoses. Such reference applications give students the ability to have the most up-to-date medical facts and findings with them at all times, and without lugging around heavy printed materials.

For dermatological training, images from a scope can be transmitted wirelessly to a group of iPad devices in the same room. And for radiology training, students can load scans on their iPad tablets and easily access the images wherever they go.

The devices will also help students prepare to be clinicians in the electronic age. Going forward, there are plans to have students' iPad tablets synched with electronic medical record systems for training during their clerkships.

"With an iPad, it will be easy to keep personal and patient records updated in real-time as you're meeting with the patient, checking reference information, and even looking up body-scan images on the fly, while making rounds," says Patel.

The iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.