Social media for knowledge translation and education 3 (SoMe-KTE3): Transfusion, thrombosis, and hemostasis

The Free Open Access Medical Education (FOAM) movement uses social media and technology to promote awareness of best practice and provides online open educational resources for medical practitioners. The resources have been embraced by health-care providers and educators as they are continuously updated, accessible anywhere, and provide two-way communication with content experts. The increasing complexity of the management of bleeding and thrombosis has been identified as a potential area well suited for development of a structured curriculum. Although this is a 'niche' medical specialty, physicians of all disciplines manage patients who are bleeding, clotting, or have bleeding disorders. Many of these physicians have little clinical educational experience in this area, and frequently, textbooks lag behind contemporary practice (for example, current textbooks have little information on the direct oral anticoagulants). Exploratory needs assessments within our group, geared towards learner-centered materials rather than teacher-centered content, have identified gaps in knowledge of core concepts of transfusion medicine important to every day practice in this area. This includes triggers for transfusion, reversal of coagulopathy and anticoagulants, management of bleeding disorders, and massive transfusion protocols. The goal of this collaboration, representing a multidisciplinary group including clinicians, laboratory technologists, and content experts, is to perform detailed needs assessments utilizing the community of practice associated with the FOAM movement. We will develop an up-to-date learner-centered, and free online accessible and current curriculum to educate on management of bleeding and thrombosis, including relevant aspects of transfusion medicine that will connect a previously untapped audience to transfusion safety and hemovigilance.

SHIH, Andrew

McMaster University

BloodTechNet Award Program

Ontario

$30,000