Mindmapping in Pathology
Hooman Henry Rashidi MD; Yale New Haven Hospital / Yale School of Medicine;
Content:
In the past decade, the use of Internet as a teaching tool in medical education and clinical care has gained both popularity and acceptance, especially in academic settings. In particular, its increased use in academics can be contributed at least in part to its popularity amongst residents and medical students. Currently there are many websites with a focus on medical education. Some of these are extremely useful, especially in the daily activities of residents and medical students.
Technology:
Web based approach to mind maps, interactive algorithms, and database search tools as they relate to pathology education.
Design:
The focus here is to introduce a new website with focus on resident and medical student teaching in surgical pathology and laboratory medicine. The goal of this website is to serve as a reliable (referenced) adjunct tool in the daily activities of pathology residents and medical students. The unique aspect of this website centers on the concept of Mind Maps . A MindMap is an image centered radial diagram that represents semantic or relationships between a central topic and its connections. In other words, it may be thought of as a graphical representation of a text outline with a central idea such as Lymphoma as it relates to its branches, Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Each of these branches can then be further expanded to include their respective sub-topics such as Nodular Sclerosing, Mixed Cellularity, Lymphocyte Rich, and Lymphocyte depleted subtypes for Hodgkin Lymphoma. For more details please refer to the website (pathologymindmap.com).
Results:
The website includes a search tool that will enable the user to gain access to the topic or mindmap of interest with great ease. Eventually each topic will also have a gross and/or microphotograph linked to its respective mindmap with interactive diagnostic algorithms.
Conclusion:
The primary mission of this website is to incorporate mindmaps, microphotographs, interactive algorithms and database search tools all under one roof. I am a firm believer of the integral role of informatics in medicine and hope to contribute to its future use in pathology education and research.
