Implementing iPads in Medical Education

In 2010, the UC Irvine School of Medicine (UCISOM) became one of the first schools to implement an iPad program through the iMedEd Initiative and remains one of the few medical schools with a longitudinal iPad integration. UCISOM has been an Apple Distinguished Program since 2012 and this year marks our sixth class of incoming students to receive iPads at the start of medical school.

For other institutions interested in implementing such a program, the Medical College of Georgia recently published an article about their findings from interviews of faculty/administrators at seven medical schools (including UCISOM) on their deployments of tablets into their curriculum. The eight best practices that emerged (as presented by iMedicalApps in their article, “Guide to implementing iPad & other tablets in medical education“) is as follows:

1. Plan before you implement
2. Define focused goals
3. Establish a tablet culture
4. Recruit an appropriate implementation team
5. Invest time in orientation of students to tablets
6. Involve students in mentoring other students
7. Accept variable use among students
8. Encourage innovation

To read the full article by the Medical College of Georgia in Medical Teacher, visit: iPad experience during clinical rotations from seven medical schools in the United States: Lessons learned.

To learn more about the iMedEd Initiative and iPads in medical education, visit: iMedEd Service Request Form.