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Background
Learning the “lingo” of the medical industry can be extremely tough. With so much information for medical professionals to know, the best way to learn is through a lot of studying. Throughout their careers, medical professionals are tested to make sure that they are still capable of doing their work. With new information coming out everyday, there is a group that is seeking an iOS app that makes learning easy and fun. It will be extremely beneficial to these professionals who seek to stay abreast with their knowledge of medicine and ensure that they have the knowledge to continue working. The application would be a proof of concept as the group would take it to physicians nationwide and try to pitch it to them. Students would work from the ground up to create this application.
Executive Summary
This project would result in the creation of a mobile application that is suitable for iOS. It would consist of a GUI that allows users to play games (puzzles, fill-in-the-blank with timer, etc.) and maintain their knowledge of medical terms and practices. A mobile application works best in this scenario as anyone could take the game on the go and use it to learn whenever they please. Also, the idea that physicians could use it to judge their knowledge versus others in their industry could lead to competition and would result in medical professionals who know a lot about their specialty. If there is time, a web application could also be written that would allow for use on the web, which would allow the game to be played even more.
Viability Analysis
At first, it seems that this is a huge task to take on, but with a team who works diligently, it can be done. It could be tough to assess the progress of a user and accurately rank them amongst their peers as there are many factors that go into progress and rank (field, frequency of use of the app, age of the user, etc). Also, It could be difficult to avoid legal complications (explained below in “Risks and Rewards”).
Risks and Rewards
Realistically, there would be a lot of work put into the game and it would be for a good cause. This application would help medical professionals find an easier method to study and would result in physicians with immense knowledge in their field. This benefits everyone as we rely on medical professionals to keep us healthy and happy. There is risk in taking on this project as legal complications may occur with creation of the app; computer science students are not studying medicine and can potentially make errors in the information shared with doctors. We would have to be careful as we would not want to be the reason that a doctor was sued for prescribing a patient with a drug that we (incorrectly) taught them about.
Closing
The group should invest resources into this endeavor because this would be the leading app in for this purpose. The vision for the application is great and the group needs help implementing it. It would be extremely useful and rewarding to create as it would help medical professionals engage more easily with their work and in turn keep patients healthier.
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