Teaching online can pose its share of challenges. Finding clinical cases to include in your online instruction doesn’t have to be one of them. Using clinical case studies, especially during a time when students are not able to have first hand clinical experiences, can help your students hone their clinical decision making, critical thinking, and clinical reasoning skills. Himmelfarb Library provides access to cases with supporting text and multimedia materials. All materials are licensed for use in instruction.
AccessMedicine Cases provides access to more than 900 basic sciences and plus selected clinical cases drawn from the Case Files series. AccessMedicine’s clinical case collections include:
- Family Medicine Board Review
- Internal Medicine drawn from Resident Readiness Internal Medicine
- Vanderbilt Internal IM/Peds
- Case Files (note: selected cases available in AccessMedicine and complete collection available via Case Files Collection)
Himmelfarb also provides access to the complete Case Files Collection which includes more than 1,150 cases, explanations, and quizzes. In addition to basic science cases, the Case Files Collection provides full access to clinical rotation cases for anesthesiology, cardiology, emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, medical ethics & professionalism, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, and surgery. Case Files Collection also provides additional cases at the post-graduate level on cardiology, geriatrics, gynecologic surgery, and orthopaedic surgery. The Case Files Collection ebooks are also available through Himmelfarb’s catalog.
To integrate cases into your online instruction, start with a relevant patient case. Students can use cases to practice taking a patient history using Smith’s Patient-Centered Interviewing. Students can expand their physical exam skills in an online instruction setting through physical exam videos. Students can then do additional research by looking up current recommendations and reading article summaries on relevant topics. Students can then decide on appropriate next steps for the patient case including diagnostic tests to be ordered, and creating a treatment plan by looking through mini-textbooks, and the provided drug monograph library. Quizzes are available at the end of cases and can be emailed to instructors when completed.
Do you want to explore topics beyond specific medical conditions? Cases in Medical Ethics and Professionalism include opportunities to explore communication, conflict resolution, ethics, and professionalism skills in addition to the medical case at hand.
Himmelfarb provides full-access to both AccessMedicine and Case Files collection although some features are accessible only after users create a free personal MyAccess Profile. To create a MyAccess Profile, click on Sign In in the upper right corner of AccessMedicine or Case Files Collection.
