TopDoc
Background
Learning medical skills / developing medical knowledge is like studying for a geography test on steroids. It requires a lot of repetitive, habit-building strategies that, as of now, require books, flashcards, and other conventional studying practices. The issue with this is that these conventional methods of studying / learning are tedious and not terribly proactive. A solution would be an interactive mobile application designed to make the medical learning process organic and second hand. This solution would solve the problem by taking place of less effective methods, making the learning process second nature. It could be used by anyone from hobbyists to aspiring professionals, as long as they have the required tech (iPhone in this instance). Ideally, students or the like would be able to cut out the books or other methods and learn via this app without even realizing how effective it is.
Executive Summary
An iOS app will present to users engaging games designed to develop their knowledge of medical terms and practices. Using short, targeted, and semi-frequent activities geared toward teaching medical skills that would otherwise be learned through methods aforementioned, users would develop knowledge through osmosis, in the most painless way possible. Multiple minigames would exist in order to keep engagement fresh and active, avoiding repetition. There would be repetition in concepts and topics of learning focus, but the repetition of each minigame would be kept to a minimum. The goal of these games is to cover all the bases of basic medical learning that would otherwise be achieved by other learning methods. Another aspect to the app would be the gamification of the learning process, rewarding users for high frequency engagement and higher achievement levels. This would help retain users and keep them motivated to learn
Viability Analysis
The two biggest pain points in the development of this app is going to be creating algorithms that drive the right frequency and type of content and generating the content in the first place. Generating the content will be difficult because, as non medical professionals or students, we will not know what would be helpful to exist in the app. A pragmatic approach to this would be joining with a knowledgeable resource during the design of the content. Creating algorithms would be the other tricky part, not only knowing the best times to request attention from the user, but also knowing when to revisit concepts that were already visited. Though it will require the most technical resources, it is definitely a viable aspect of the development process.
Risks and Rewards
Risks would be creating an app that claims to replace conventional studying or learning methods but falls short, potentially angering users with higher expectations. If successful, we could help make medical education accessible to a lot more people than to whom it is currently accessible.
Closing
I think this is a really cool idea, though right now is limited to a niche market. Expanding it to draw in more people interested in fields or things within the range of the medical field could prove fruitful, and could help this app grow to touch many people’s’ pockets.
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