Yale medical school switching to iPad curriculum, Harvard medical school creating custom apps

Add Yale’s School of Medicine to the growing list of medical schools that are embracing the iPad as the primary source of medical teaching.

This upcoming year Yale will be giving their medical students, all 520 of them, an iPad 2 with an external wireless keyboard. We’ve covered with great depth the growing list of medical schools using iPads as the main tool for learning — such as Stanford, UC-Irvine, and many more.

“Yale School of Medicine this year will outfit all students with iPads and no longer provide printed course materials. The initiative, born out of a going-green effort, could save the school money in the long run, said Assistant Dean for Curriculum Mike Schwartz.

The school typically spends about $100,000 each year in printing costs for class materials for the first- and second- year students. That doesn’t include the cost of labor, he said.

Schwartz said the iPads will provide professors with new classroom tools, including clearer graphics and the ability to change course materials as often as necessary. “

While Harvard’s School of Medicine isn’t providing a specific tablet or device, they are instead providing supporting apps. They are test piloting apps that medical students can use on the iOS and Android platform — for example — the ability to do patient tracking using your smartphone.

Source: Boston.com