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F6 Sunday, February 25, 2007
Staying up
to date harder,
more critical
BY JOHN GREEN
The Hutchinson News
jgreen@hutchnews.com
One of the greatest chal-
lenges in medical school – a
challenge doctors say doesn’t
go away with the degree – has
long been assimilating the
masses of information neces-
sary to practice medicine.
In today’s world of instant
access, high technology and
fast-paced change, “informa-
tion overload” is more chronic
than ever, said Jim Fishback,
an associate professor and di-
rector of basic science cur-
riculum at the University of
Kansas School of Medicine.
“It’s a huge problem,” Fish-
back said. “There’s something
like 10,000 medical journals.
There’s just so much informa-
tion it is very, very difficult to
keep up with.”
That’s part of the reason
the state’s medical school has
spent millions of dollars to in-
troduce electronic data sys-
tems into the classroom.
It’s also the way many doc-
tors – both recent graduates
and those who’ve been in the
practice for some time – are
keeping up.
Students entering KU’s
medical school last semester
were the first under a new cur-
The Hutchinson News
OUR ADVANCING WORLD
riculum requiring mandatory
use of “tablet” personal com-
puters.
“We buy the computers and
charge a fee for it,” Fishback
said. “Everyone has the same
computer and software.”
The tablet PCs allow the stu-
dents to take notes during lec-
tures that are automatically
indexed. All the lectures stu-
dents attend are now recorded
for podcasting, so they can put
them with the class notes and
review them later, speeding
through parts they don’t need
to see.
“When I was in school they
used codochrome slides,
which we never saw again,
and you had to take copious
notes,” Fishback said. “We
were in lectures from 8 to 5
and then had to read 400 pages PHOTOS BY LINDSEY BAUMAN/The Hutchinson News
at night.” Erik Severud of Pinnacle Sports Medicine and Orthopaedics shows one of the operating rooms where he performs hip arthroscopy surgery and the
Now those slides – as well as screen where he views the surgery as it is being performed.
entire textbooks – are loaded
onto the computer, which
make them instantly search-
able. All the pieces can be cut
and pasted in an order the stu-
dent can use to access them
New technique helps take hurt out of hips
for easier study. And the stu-
dents spend a maximum three BY KATHY HANKS with an arthroscopy procedure
hours a day in lectures. The Hutchinson News that can help postpone the need
While faculty worried the khanks@hutchnews.com for hip replacement surgery.
new system would cut into Dr. Erik Severud, with Pinna-
Today, when hips start to cle Sports Medicine and Or-
wear out, technology steps in thopaedics, recently trained
● See INFO / F8 under Dr. Thomas Byrd of
Nashville to learn the new pro-
cedure.
Since learning it in June, he
has performed five hip arthro-
scopies – on an outpatient basis
and performed under general
anesthesia.
Open hip surgery involves
time spent in the hospital, a
large incision and then a long
recovery time.
This new procedure takes Erik Severud of Pinnacle Sports Medicine and Orthopaedics explains
about an hour, while Severud in-
jects a rigid scope into the hip.
hip arthroscopy surgery.
He monitors the movement of what steps to take. room at Pinnacle, 1818 East 23.
the scope on a computer screen, “It’s not terribly common,” It does seem to be the answer
explaining it’s a little like play- Severud said of the outpatient
ing a video game. Studying the surgery that can be done in the ● See HIPS / F8
computer images, he knows surgical center’s operating
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