Professors use iPad FaceTime feature in teaching medical students

CNYCentral's Dora Scheidell interviewed Ann Botash MD and for a story about using the iPad FaceTime app in medical education. Photo by Kathleen Paice Froio.

CNYCentral's Dora Scheidell interviewed Ann Botash MD, pediatrics professor, and Karthik Kota, a third-year medical student, for a story about using the iPad FaceTime app in medical education. Photo by Kathleen Paice Froio.

About 60 students and faculty are using the FaceTime feature on the iPad in a study that allows teachers to observe their students interacting with patients without interfering. The faculty members observe the encounters in real time, via an iPad in the corner of the exam room, and then provide immediate feedback to the students.

The study is made possible through a $25,000 SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology grant. It involves medical students in family medicine and pediatrics, nurses in the family nurse practitioner program and students in the physical therapy program.

"I think in the room, you interfere a little bit with the patient-student interaction because you're there," Ann Botash, MD, told CNYCentral. Botash is a pediatrics professor. She also said using the iPads will improve efficiency, since faculty members will be able to provide feedback from anywhere.

Read/watch CNYCentral story by Dora Scheidell

Read the Syracuse.com story by James T. Mulder.

Read Upstate's news release about the iPad FaceTime study