Karan D’Souza (left) and Michael Slater presenting at the Health Sciences Group annual meeting.
Southern Medical Program students Karan D’Souza and Michael Slater recently returned from presenting at the Universitas 21’s (U21) Health Sciences Group annual meeting in Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Universitas 21 is a network of research-intensive universities from around the world who work together to foster global citizenship and innovation. The Health Sciences Group focuses on opportunities for collaborative research, exchanging information, and sharing resources amongst multiple universities and health professions.
D’Souza and Slater presented a one-hour, interactive workshop titled Social Media in Health Professional Education: Opportunities and Pitfalls designed for health profession students.
“Our aim is to help students explore the possibilities for personal and professional growth within social media, while being mindful of material that could be perceived as unprofessional by peers, faculty, or the public,” says D’Souza. “Our presentation included a discussion on institutional guidelines, examined opportunities for networking and sharing information, as well as personal reflection on social media attitudes and usage patterns.”
A one-hour group discussion was also held to gather feedback from the diverse group in attendance with the hope of sharing the workshop findings with U21 members to modify and adopt at their respective institutions.
The students acknowledged the meeting as a unique opportunity to hear perspectives from different countries and multiple disciplines of health education and research.
“We valued the informal conversations with both the professionals and the students as it allowed us to learn more about the structure and culture of health professions education around the world,” says Slater. “Delivering our workshop to such an accomplished and diverse group of people was a really positive experience and one that we will be able to draw upon in the future.”
Both D’Souza and Slater would like to acknowledge Dr. Kendall Ho, professor, UBC Department of Emergency Medicine and former director of eHealth Strategy Office for helping make this opportunity possible.