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Information Technology in Practice

Indian Pediatrics 2008; 45:165

Podcasting: Emerging Form of Virtual Clinical Education

 

"Podcasting’s essence is about creating content (audio or video–vodcasts) for an audience that wants to listen/watch when they want, where they want, and how they want."

Podcast is a collection of digital media files which is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds. It can be played on portable media players and personal computers. The method by which the content is syndicated is termed podcasting. ‘Podcasting’ originates from a combination of ‘broadcasting’ and ‘iPod’, and refers to distributing content (audio and video) on MP3 players, hand- held devices and personal computers using Web feeds or syndication formats like RSS and Atom. The host or author of a podcast is called a podcaster(1-3).

Users can listen to podcasts and watch vodcasts on their computer (e.g., using Windows Media Player), or download to portable MP3/MP4 player or iPod and listen/watch anywhere on the move. That makes it a perfect tool of updating for the busy health professional. What makes a podcast different from a normal audio file hosted online is that you can subscribe, so it will automatically download to your computer whenever a new episode of a particular show is released. Some of the educational applications of podcasting and videocasting are listed:

• Medical professional can stay updated with the recent medical literature ‘on-the-go.’

• Recordings of lectures for those students unable to attend the lecture in person.

• Audio recordings of textbook content by chapter allowing students to ‘read; or review texts while on move.

• Downloadable libraries of high resolution heart and respiratory sounds for medical students.

Selected Medical Podcasts

Clinical podcast: http://www.clinicalpodcast.com/

JAMA : http://jama.ama-assn.org/misc/audiocommentary.dtl

Journal club for cardiology: http://conversations.acc.org/

Journal club for critical care: http://www.sccm.org/SCCM/Publications/iCritical+Care/

Lancet: http://www.thelancet.com/audio

My medical podcasts: http://www.mymedicalpodcasts.co.uk/ 

Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/index.html

New England Journal of Medicine: http://content.nejm.org/misc/podcast.dtl 

NIH Podcasts: http://www.nih.gov/news/radio/podcast/nihpodcastarchive.htm

Department of Pediatrics University of Arizona: http://www.peds.arizona.edu/residency/podcast.asp

Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Iowa: http://haven.its.uiowa.edu/content/com/emerg_med/podcast.xml

Sidharth Kumar Sethi,
Fellow, Pediatric Nephrology,
All India Institute of Medical Sciences,
New Delhi 110 029, India.
Email: [email protected]

References

1. Podcast. 16 December 2007 18:15 UTC. In Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Encyclopedia on-line. Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? title= Podcast&oldid=178330476. Accessed 17 Decem-0ber 2007 07:26 UTC.

2. Gustini D. Top five (5) podcasts in medicine. UBC Academic Search-Google Scholar Blog. [document on the Internet]; 2006 March 13. Available from: http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/googlescholar/archives/023989.html. Accessed 17 December 2007

3. Boulos MN, Maramba I, Wheeler S. Wikis, blogs and podcasts: a new generation of Web-based tools for virtual collaborative clinical practice and education. BMC Med Educ 2006; 6: 41.

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