Lifelong learning and practicing Evidence Based Medicine are goals of PA education at Emory. Using technology to enhance excellent clinical skills is taught throughout the curriculum.

Equipment -  All incoming students are required to have a laptop computer or netbook, either Mac or PC, that will work with Emory University WiFi network and run all the required programs. The specification are set every summer for the incoming Fall class.

All students are required to have a smartphone (iPhone, Android) or PDA (iTouch/iPad/Android tablet) . We recommend the Smartphone because of having one device for communication and references.

Required Software – Incoming students are emailed a list of required and recommended software to install prior to arriving on campus. This currently includes the following:

Symantic Antivirus Corporate edition which is provided free for all Emory students and faculty. This provides automatic updates as long as you are a student. This can be downloaded and installed once you have a University ID from https://software.emory.edu We also recommend installing SpyBot  - Search and Destroy http://www.spybot.info/en/index.html - as a free spy ware preventer and extractor.

Adobe Acrobat Reader (http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html)
A free program that lets you view and print Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files. This is how many of the notes and articles are distributed to students.

Adobe Flash Player at  http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/ for watching Flash video content

Real Media Player at http://real.com

Windows Media Player (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/en/download/default.asp)
The free Microsoft Media Player supports Windows Media (WMA,ASF), MP3, WAV, MIDI, AVI, and other formats. For Mac users we recommend “ Flip for Mac “ to watch streaming video in wmv format http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/flip4mac.mspx

Microsoft Office All class documents will be communicated as Microsoft Word, Power Point, or Adobe PDF so you will need software to read and write in this format. All documents turned in electronically must be in these same formats. Emory PA students may download MS Office for PC or Mac at  http://emorysom.onthehub.com

Email -MS Outlook is the official  email client software for students at Emory. Email can be viewed with your web browser at http://owa.emory.edu or using Outlook included in MS Office.

Students are also encouraged to have a Google gmail account to use the Google calendar and documents features. The Faculty use Google calendar as a way of communicating the ever-changing  class schedule in a universal way.

Courseware- Emory uses BlackBoard to post all course information, handouts,  power point slides, and video links https://classes.emory.edu. Each course director has a Black Board course site that has the course syllabus, documents, and links. There is a optional discussion board feature where students can share assignments and “Blogs” 

Doc.com http://webcampus.drexelmed.edu/doccom/user/  is an online book with streaming videos and text content used in all Behavioral Medicine classes. It has an excellent combination of  video scenarios along with text and online tests that help teach many aspects of patient communication, the medical history, motivational interviewing and difficult interviews. This is also supplemented with free video resources on patient communication skills  from the MD Anderson Cancer Center at  http://www.mdanderson.org/education-and-research/resources-for-professionals/professional-educational-resources/i-care/complete-library-of-communication-videos/basic-principles.html 

 Library Resources- The Emory Health Sciences Library at http://health.library.emory.edu/ has many online books, journals and databases. The evidence based medicine resource  provided to students and  faculty is DynaMed from Ebsco Publishing - http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed/ This offers PC access on and off campus as well as PDA access on many platforms.

Computer support- Emory does provide free laptop (not PDA) computer diagnostics and some software support. They can troubleshoot connectivity issues by phone. The School of Medicine has an IT department with some PC help. A PA student with prior PC skills is selected as a class technology representative and is paid a small stipend to help provide student and faculty help. Emory University Information Technology offers many computer services to students and faculty https://it.emory.edu/

Smartphone - PDA recommended programs

The following programs are recommended for student use:

Free – Epocrates Drug Rx  http://www.epocrates.com/

 Diagnosaurus -  at http://www.books.mcgraw-hill.com/medical/diagnosaurus/index.html

Emory site license – Dynamed from Skyscape –  http://www.ebscohost.com/dynamed/

To download Dynamed to your PDA you should do the following:

1. Set up a Skyscape account at http://www.skyscape.com. Skyscape is the leader in medical e-books for smartphones and PDAs. There are e-books for sale as subscriptions in every specialty (For a 25% discount go to www.Skyscape.com/EmoryPA ) and they are all cross-linked for easy navigation. They have several free references, guidelines, monographs, and calculators.

2. Next, iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch /Android users need to install the free SkyScape App from the Android Market or Apple iTunes App Store. After you have installed it, launch the Skyscape App on your device. And enter your Skyscape login and password information.

3. Download the following free resources to supplement and link with Dynamed (Under Update/Free Resources for iOS)

4. Contact DynaMed support at dynamedsupport@ebscohost.com to request a Emory- DynaMed serial number using your Emory email address.

5. When your serial number arrives, Open your SkyScape app on your PDA and tap the Tools/Install Resource. Enter the Dynamed serial number and it should download (60 MB size) and install automatically if you have WiFi or Cell Service.

6. Dynamed should be in your home menu. Use the update tab to see if there are updates available.

7. Use the link tab within Dynamed to link with your other Skyscape references

SkyScape has several free programs and the largest library of PDA medical e-textbooks -  http://www.skyscape.com/EmoryPA  Free programs  http://www.skyscape.com/estore/store.aspx?category=35&WT.mc_id=55551&WT.srch=1

Medscape Mobile - Free at http://www.medscape.com/mobile/about

Mobile Medical Articles - Learn about using Smartphone and PDA for patient care

There are several sessions on medical informatics in the first year. Smartphone- PDA use is encouraged when student practice history taking skills on each other in class and when doing work-ups on standardized patients and mentored patients in the community.

PC Orientation – Incoming students are given the list of equipment and software requirements 8 weeks prior to starting and up to 80% have all the required programs working by orientation week. The second day of orientation is dedicated to getting all students on-line and they must complete an electronic scavenger hunt demonstrating their ability to navigate the software and hardware.

Board Review – Study preparation for the PANCE begins at the beginning of the clinical year with an orientation to the online product Exam Master, Students are encouraged to complete several PANCE practice tests online with  the timing and feedback to simulate the PANCE.  At the end of the clinical year, students attend a live four day board review course. This course is video tapped annually and  a home study DVD course is generated with PC video split screen with slides, MP3 audio, and PDA video files to offer multiple modes of study. This DVD set is given to each student before clinical rotations to study the entire year prior to their live conference near graduation. Click on this link for a demonstration