Presented at the 1999 APIII Conference Return to 1999 Abstract Index
UTILIZING ELECTRONIC RESOURCES IN PATHOLOGY RESIDENCY EDUCATION VIA A PATHOLOGY EDUCATION INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCE (PEIR)
(Username: apiii99 ; Password: apiii99)
University of Alabama @ Birmingham (UAB)
Birmingham, Alabama
Sate Hamza, MD
Sate Hamza, MD; Kristopher N. Jones, BS; Peter Anderson,
DVM, PhD
The Pathology Education Instructional Resource (PEIR) of
UAB was designed to serve as an Internet-based education
resource for pathology students and faculty, to support
the education mission of the Department of Pathology, and
to facilitate development of innovative teaching and learning
modalities. The core resource of PEIR consists of two searchable,
Web-accessible databases - one of almost 10,000 pathology
test questions and the other of almost 30,000 digital pathology
images. PEIR utilizes a Web-based authoring system, the
features of which include a simple user interface and easy-to-use
administrative tools that can be accessed with any Web browser.
The first phase in the application of PEIR resources was to aid in the development of digital learning materials for pathology graduate education and undergraduate medical education. Toward this goal, we developed course homepages from which were delivered online testing, links to other online resources, discussion forums, and streaming media lectures. With success in these endeavors, PEIR was poised for expansion into UAB’s pathology resident education program, which was seeking to make use of available institutional electronic resources.
A division was created on the PEIR website with the purpose of creating an online information resource aimed at fulfilling the daily educational needs of residents and fellows. First, the residents were introduced to the PEIR Image Database; its images have been used by them for presentations and they have further contributed images to aid in its development. Second, additional resource materials were developed by the webmaster for the residents’ section (himself a resident). These materials have included links to other online image databases, online pathology educational resources, and online textbooks. Further, a high-intensity Internet search was performed for pathology images online, and the links to those were used to augment the illustrations of a well-known surgical pathology textbook. Finally, PEIR has been used as a hosting site for the delivery of educational materials created by residents and faculty; for example, presentations made by residents are digitized, when necessary, and converted to HTML format, then added to the website. All of these resources are available to residents either on- or off-campus.
