Education/Newsletter/May 2013/First ever medical school education program pilot begins at UCSF
The UCSF Education Project kicked off in January when Ocaasi and Jmh649 joined fourth-year UCSF medical student and Wikipedian Michaelturken at University of California San Francisco's medical school. We put on a week-long lecture series and editathon introducing students, staff, and clinicians to Wikipedia and Medicine. We had about 60 people attend the talks and 30 come through the editathon. The environment was incredibly receptive. We met with librarians, student deans, education curriculum leaders, and some of the very talented members of UCSF's vibrant research community. Big news, UCSF has proposed a 4th-year medical elective, for credit, in which students would choose and improve a medical topic on Wikipedia. This is the first medical school education project we have heard of, ever! A number of presentations have been given globally regarding the significance of Wikipedia in medical education. James refined his already great introductory talks ([1][2]) which Ocaasi adapted as well ([3]). Last, Michael put together a great slideset ([4]) for medical educators which he presented at the Association of American Medical College's 2013 Western Conference along with his UCSF professor Amin Azziz, Ocaasi, and Doc James.