Incoming Stanford medical students each get an Apple iPad

Stanford is leading the e-learning movement among medical students by providing each of their incoming medical students with an Apple iPad. This announcement came out last week and I'm eager to see what type of outcomes they'll get from this experiment.

Here are some snippets from the news release:

The core goal of the iPad initiative is to improve the student learning experience. The decision to provide the devices was prompted by a desire to give students flexible access to the content that they need whether it is a virtual cadaver in dissection lab, annotated lecture slides and videos in the classroom, or journal articles for evidence-based practice in clinic.

“We want to explore the use of iPads and other technologies to help students access the enormous amount of medical knowledge that is being produced constantly,” said Charles Prober, MD, the school’s senior associate dean for medical education. “Part of the challenge facing medical students, and all doctors, is the overwhelming amount of information. Devices like the iPad may be able to help users access that pool of knowledge.”

You can read the full news release here.