synDRME: A Synthesis of Digital Resources for Medical Education

Background:In many developing countries, there is a critical shortage of physicians. Compounding this problem is that medical schools in these countries are unable to train future physicians due to a lack of faculty. Despite efforts, such as those by the Global Health Service Partnership of the Peace Corps, to increase faculty in African medical schools, it has become apparent that many schools will not in fact have adequate faculty numbers for generations to come. However, with markedly improved internet technology, e-learning is becoming a reality in making it possible to deliver quality content to medical students who need supplementary materials in their medical training. Moreover, e-learning can be cost-effective, which overcomes one of the greatest barriers in finding potential solutions to this problem.Objective:synDRME is a website that was created by a team based at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences to provide students with free electronic resources that have been reviewed and graded on a rubric to help guide users. With the vision to create a complete curriculum that medical students are able to use, synDRME was still lacking in coursework relating to public health and community-based medicine. The team identified this as a major weakness of the project, as these topics are often the cornerstone in practicing medicine in developing countries.Methods:Over the past summer, progress was made in identifying, reviewing, and rating resources relating to public health and community-based medicine. Over one hundred different online resources were reviewed, and the team identified the resources it thought would be most valuable to medical students. Additionally, more resources were identified outside of the public health/community-based medicine domains.Results:The recently identified resources are not yet live on the website, as this is a work-in-progress, but the goal is to have the resources posted as soon as possible. Additionally, the team worked together to identify areas of improvement within the website, take down outdated links, and note areas where more resources should be added. Once complete, the team will look to market synDRME as an educational resource to faculty and administrators in African medical schools, as well as to the students themselves.