Head to Toe

Initial situation

In response to the observation that no platform easily offers all the knowledge required for a medical student’s curriculum, a free application has been created. This application aims to provide a survival kit to the medical student, gathering all the theoretical and practical knowledge, both general and specific to each medical field. For students, it was crucial to be able to access this content easily and quickly during their practice, while being able to trust the sources of information made available (e.g., multimedia content).

Project implementation

The application developed (IOS; Android) is presented as a “pocket toolbox”. It allows to gather transversal information relevant to a practical field, in particular by integrating already existing materials. Specialists in a medical field and/or university professors are in charge of sorting and adding validated and high quality content in their fields specialization.

It can be downloaded by anyone with a SWITCH login. More specifically, the content available includes PDF documents (course book, management protocols, etc.), checklists allowing an exhaustive and systematic collection of data and videos (practical demonstrations of clinical examination and technical gestures), some of which can be accessed offline. Students also have the possibility to take notes in the application and to export these data in PDF format. In addition, they can ask questions or send specific requests directly from the application, which are then handled by the competent teachers.

The content is regularly updated to ensure that it is always current and adapted to current recommendations (from teaching and practice). Automatic alerts are sent to the authors of the documents so that they are frequently revalidated and updated. For each item, it is possible to easily visualize the last update date, the expiration date and the author’s contact information.

Thoughts and advice

This medium can be distributed very widely and has the advantage of being available on smartphones and tablets. Moreover, the platform can be easily exported by other faculties and universities. The content can be updated on a regular basis through an easy to use administration interface. However, this format requires a long-term investment in the application by each area manager to enable an up-to-date and high-quality platform.

Student feedback

“This application offers the possibility of collecting usage data and performing statistical analysis. This allows an evaluation of the usefulness of a content and if necessary a redesign of it to adapt it to the students’ demand. The application is therefore in constant evolution. The latest version of the application was launched in March 2019 with daily use by students and peaks of use during exam periods.” “An online survey showed high satisfaction with the use of the app, and a constant demand for additional material, showing interest and relevance of the app.”