DIGITAL LEARNING FOR MEDICAL STUDENTS

1. Dr.T.V.Rao MD
We all believe teaching and learning are two human process and the teachers are
still respected for their contributions and mending the people to be better citizens, At
present in the educational system in particular the higher education everything is
right when senior teacher teaches the outdated and irrelevant things in spite of many
changes in the educational system, When the students do not gain out of outdated
teachers. In today's world, use of Internet has become indispensable. Medical
students have much to gain from the Internet technology that has revolutionized the
medical field. There is a very rapid change in the way communication technology is
being handled and our medical students should also be ready to embrace it. In spite
of real developments many senior teacher or even the less motivated junior teacher
too resist the change. Medical education like professional education a basic medical
graduated loaded with many ideas and few practices, The Medical educational
training programs have not changed much to the needs of the people, In many prime
Institutes the good students turn on to online learning the rest are all left in the
system without much desired progress by the curriculum. Still there are good
Institutes and excellent teachers in the country many students learn best in the
classroom, and some of them don't. But we still love to learn — we just need to find
the way that works for us. , There is no doubt that Internet has made it very easy to
access knowledge. Knowledge is now no more a privilege of people, I realized this
when I first started using Internet in last decade, I find very difficult to change many in
the circumstances we work In my younger days it was difficult to even get the
essential books, leave alone the desired books All of these changed with the internet.
I learned a lot with Internet, it's like that Google has become my teacher to answer
any question in the world. The Internet, one of the important scientific developments
in this field, provides a wealth of information in relation to diseases, therapeutic
procedures and pharmaceutical products. It has a lower cost as compared to paper-
based dissemination of information and also has an added advantage of being
available worldwide instantly on demand. Therefore, there is a need not only to equip
medical fraternity with adequate skills for use of Internet but also to make Internet
facility available in institutions providing medical education and health care.
But soon I learned it's drawbacks also as it would be with anything. It causes a lot of
distraction & sometime it takes a long time if you want to study something
systematically. Many of us do not use Internet and GOOGLE with scientific approach
just we start searching what ever we like, never forget Internet is like sea and many
youth are eaten away by many Sharks i.e. As misinformation floated by any one
without minimal peer review. One thing that goes with learning online is self-
discipline. It's an additional feature that comes with it. The utilization of such Internet
facilities in a medical college would depend upon the percentage of
students/residents who know how to operate a computer as well as the quality of
services provided in the facility
If you ask me sincerely I should today many students waste the time and resources
to get directed in the wrong direction however it is going to affect the psychology and
misinformation, wrong execution in the essential performance
I love to have this free knowledge on Internet but I still crave for those yesteryears
when I loved to read one books for few days rather than querying the Internet with
hundreds of questions every day. We have yet to see how this technology affect our
cognitive abilities because knowledge is not just knowing about everything, we also
need the solitude, intuition & focus which is certainly not an ingredient of internet.

2. Many times Internet never explains how to execute our knowledge in real time
situation this is how the Internet limits the Medical students to be better doctors,
Internet in spite of having Real Time clinical videos cannot make or bring human
touch to the profession, It points the future direction of education and knowledge
enhancements. The future is evolving to a blended industry/education wiki-like
arrangement. It is certain Teachers are just link between the students and growing
technological developments
By combining the real time knowledge of industry with the impartial judgment of
educational organizations an approved link list with commentary could be universally
created and enhanced.
*Whether you are a graduate, an undergraduate or a continuing student, the web is
one resource material that you can’t do without, and there is a plethora of dedicated
student websites available. This piece will attempt to highlight 20 of the most useful
websites that medical students can use to make their life easier
Medical Resource Websites
Part of med student school life involves intensive research work. Webmasters are
well aware of the concept and that is why they have designed specific search
engines that are fully dedicated to providing medical students with all the resource
materials they need. Some of the popular med search engines include:
• Omni Medical Search – this search engine is dedicated to gathering information
from some of the top medical professional web sites. The information that is provided
by the search engine is basically from peer level sources. If you are also looking for
some of the hard to find medical resources, this search engine has the perfect
answer for you.
• MedNet – the metasearch engine is dedicated to providing med students with all the
information relating to journals, associations and new sources among others.
• Hardin MD – as a University of Lowa sponsored website, Hardin MD provides users
with the option of searching for general health topics and disease based on their
alphabetical order. Users can also get access to a number of online articles and
photos related to their disease search.
• Healthline – the search engine allows the user to conduct searches on some of the
best health sites available on the internet. Ultimately, it helps to reduce the time
spent on the internet researching.
Student Reference Sites
he websites listed here can be used as a wonderful source of reference material for
med students who wish to conduct additional research.
• MedicalStudent – this website provides users with a plethora of free online medical
textbooks together with helpful links that are well equipped with relevant information
in as far as the field of medicine is concerned.
• MedicalMatrix – quite similar to MedicalStudent as it offers both paid and free links
to online textbooks, CME and medical journals. The only difference is that
MedicalMatrix is a lot more thorough, as it offers specific links based on speciality.
• FreeBookCenter – this dedicated website does not only provide free e-books for
med students, it also includes books related to Computer Science, Networking and
Web Technology.
• Student Book World – this website compares the prices of books that are available
so that the users can have the option of making their own decision before purchasing
a book. Their catalogue contains a number of med related books.
• NCBI Bookshelf – in as much as the National Centre for Biotechnology Information
was developed as a source of molecular biology information, their library is
expanding from just dealing with biomedical books to including books related to

3. general medicine.
• The Merck Manuals – these manuals are a series of healthcare related books that
can be used by doctors for diagnosis and therapy-based disorders. The best thing
about The Merck Manuals is that it is available for free online.
*Ref – 20 Useful sites for medical Students by Joyce Waddell, BSW | March 23, 2015
(Brain Blogger)
• Dr.T.V.Rao MD Professor of Microbiology Freelance Writer