2016 Innovative Uses of Technology in Teaching Award: Jeffery Hill, MD

Jeffery Hill, MD, MEd, turned to technology to meet the challenge of teaching University of Cincinnati Emergency Medicine residents with schedules that can be as varied as the challenges they encounter while serving as flight physicians on UC Health Air Care and Mobile Care. Over the past two years, Hill has integrated social media and asynchronous education into the UC Department of Emergency Medicine residency curriculum through the establishment of an educational blog, tamingthesru.com.

SRU, pronounced "shrew”, stands for Shock Resuscitation Unit and is described on the blog as "where the sickest of the sick patients are found in our emergency department. It is a crucible, a test of knowledge and strength and a true manifestation of the tripartite mission of our department: Leadership, Excellence and Opportunity.”

The blog gives Hill and the residents an opportunity to share thoughts and ideas on what they encounter as Air Care flight physicians in a creative and frequently entertaining way. It also features a podcast as part of the effort to provide information in an asynchronous way to meet the challenging schedules of the residents. The blog aspires to describe the sights, sounds and smells of the Air Care environment so that when the residents encounter it in the future, memories of the learning they did on fictional cases described in great detail in the blog can be reactivated.

The blog has fostered vibrant online discussions between residents, allowed for interactive and immersive procedural videos and teaching, and disseminated knowledge inter-professionally and across the disciplines of medicine.

"Dr. Hill’s work on Taming the SRU has been truly influential in both my personal education as well as the education of my co-residents,” says Woods Curry, MD, chief resident of the Department of Emergency Medicine, UC College of Medicine. "The overall educational experience of our entire department has been elevated by the resources and additional learning opportunities Dr. Hill has brought us.”

"What I really want to do is make the education as open and accessible to the residents,” says Hill. "By making the education that we give to our residents available to others, I believe it will help us meet our goal of taking better care of patients by elevating the level of knowledge of everyone in the Emergency Department.”