Medical student essentials; Stethoscope, iPad

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff 08/29/2011 5:17 PM

Yale School of Medicine this year will outfit all students with iPads and no longer provide printed course materials. The initiative, born out of a going-green effort, could save the school money in the long run, said Assistant Dean for Curriculum Mike Schwartz.

The school typically spends about $100,000 each year in printing costs for class materials for the first- and second- year students. That doesn’t include the cost of labor, he said.

Schwartz said the iPads will provide professors with new classroom tools, including clearer graphics and the ability to change course materials as often as necessary.

“It really makes the curriculum imminently updateable,” he said.

The student iPads come with the apps needed to download and annotate reading material and podcast lectures, along with a $69 gift card to buy a keyboard.

With each device costing about $900 and 520 students to outfit, the initiative is a significant up-front investment but Schwartz said the costs will even out over time.

“It will be basically a wash, at the worst,” he said.

The iPad has enough security tools that the students can use them to store health information in their clinical years. Eventually, the iPads will sync to hospital electronic health records, though Schwartz said that capability likely won’t be available for at least a year.

With more of health care and medical training migrating to mobile devices, Harvard Medical School has taken a different tack. The school lets students decide which mobile device they prefer and focuses on developing software targeted for their needs that can be used on various products.

The school continues to provide printed material because some students want it, Jason Alvarez, Harvard Medical School’s director of educational technology and software development, said by e-mail.

“Students can opt into receiving their course materials electronically rather than paper, and we believe that it is important for this to still be a student-based decision,” he said.

Alvarez said the school is developing various mobile programs, including an iPhone app set to be launched in a pilot program for third-year students that allows them to track their patient interactions during hospital rounds.

“This tracking will ensure that they’ve seen all the required types of conditions and diseases for a particular rotation,” Alvarez said. “If not, a faculty member that periodically reviews their encounters can direct their learning accordingly.”

The school eventually will roll out an Android version, as well, he said.

A side note: Privacy is paramount when dealing with health information, and mobile devices pose a particular challenge because they are easily lost or stolen. Dr. John D. Halamka, chief information officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, offers these tips for securing the devices.

Chelsea Conaboy can be reached at cconaboy@boston.com.