We have teamed up with APLS to share the videos from their Paediatric Acute Care Conferences. These videos have never been open access before, so if you weren’t able to attend the conferences, then now’s your chance to catch up.
The PAC Conference is run each year by APLS and consists of presentations on a range of topics relevant to paediatric acute and critical care.
Dr Michael Baker is an Emergency Physician working at both Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and Princess Margaret Hospital for Children. He a long time contributor Life in the Fast Lane. In this 2013 lecture, he introduces the concept of Free Open Access Medical education (FOAM) to the PAC Conference.
The FOAM Revolution – Dr Michael Baker
Key points:
- FOAM is Free Open Access Medical education.
- It encourages participants to engage in the cycle of knowledge.
- FOAM is excellent for motivated learners, and provides asynchronous learning.
- One of the goals of FOAM is to break down knowledge silos.
- FOAM inherently blurs the lines between teachers & learners.
- Dr Baker gives a nice worked example, with mention of a number of FOAM sites (including Pediatric EM Morsels, St Emlyn’s, The NNT).
- One of the strengths of FOAM is the ability for rapid feedback; something that conventional publishers are adopting.
- There are some good questions at the end of the lecture about how to appraise the reliability and trustworthiness of FOAM content.
- FOAM needs to be read in combination with the source literature.
Many users of DFTB are familiar with the concept of FOAM – it’s what we do! It’s worth noting that at the time of Dr Baker’s lecture, FOAM was a relatively new concept. Since then, FOAM has been the core principle of two further conferences and has grown significant momentum as a global movement for medical education. For more on the history of FOAM, we strongly advise you to read Life in the Fast Lane’s About FOAM article.
Links:
PEM Morsels –Â https://pedemmorsels.com
St.Emlyns – https://stemlynsblog.org
