SYRACUSE — The State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University has dialed up a study involving Apple iPads and a video-calling app.
Upstate is using Apple’s FaceTime video-calling app to allow faculty members at remote locations to observe medical students interacting with patients in their rooms. The faculty members then use the app to provide the students with feedback.
“We know how convenient and useful FaceTime and the iPad are at connecting families, especially when they are great distances from each other,” Dr. Ann Botash, Upstate professor of pediatrics, said in a news release. “We want to see if the same technology can be helpful in how faculty observe and respond to students as part of the educational process.”
Funding for the study comes from a $25,000 SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grant. About 60 students and faculty members are participating, with students coming from family medicine and pediatric clerkships, Upstate’s family nurse practitioner program, and its physical-therapy program.
The medical university plans to present its findings in May.
“This study will address whether the iPad and FaceTime can help us bridge time and distance barriers to observing students, as well [as] enhance the students’ clinical skills by improving the quality and consistency of the faculty’s immediate feedback,” said Botash, who is one of the study’s main investigators.
Contact Seltzer at rseltzer@cnybj.com