Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/863733
6 | S U M M E R 2 0 1 7 HE UNTRAINED EYES OF M1s at the College of Medicine gained sharper focus this past school year thanks to Google Glass, a pair of glasses that includes a tiny camera, speaker and microphone, and broadcasts to a remote screen. "Google Glass allows first-year medical students to see things that they normally wouldn't see until they are much farther along in their training," says Bellur S. Prabhakar, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology, and associate dean for technological innovation and training in the College of Medicine. "Using Google Glass to provide clinical experiences earlier can help students decide sooner what they might want to specialize in, instead of waiting until they are in their M3 or M4 year." Prabhakar says Google Glass was used for medical education in the 2016 - 17 academic year in the following three areas, which will be extended to include emergency medicine, neurology and pathology in the coming year: • anesthesiology, to let an instructor project a microscope pain management procedure from the operating room onto a screen in a remote classroom; • cardiology, to help students get a better view of what an instructor sees as he works with Harvey ® , a medical mannequin that produces realistic heart sounds; and • neurosurgery, where the technology allowed students to watch spinal cord surgery from their classrooms, laptops or devices, without interfering with the patient care. Prabhakar expects Google Glass to be used by more departments for both education and even patient care in the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System in the future. "The use of this technology will certainly become more integrated into our medical education curricula, but for now, we are just starting to explore the possibilities," he says. GOOGLE GLASS EXTENDS LEARNING T During AY 2016-17, the COM used Google Glass in anesthesiology, cardiology and neurosurgery; in the coming school year it will be infused into emergency medicine, neurology and pathology. The use of Google Glass has accelerated the clinical experience for first-year students in the College of Medicine. $5M Federal Grant to Help UIC Graduate More Latino Scientists HE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO has received a five-year, $5.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education affirming the designation of the university as a Hispanic- Serving Institution, aimed at augmenting UIC's efforts to increase the number of Latino and low-income students attaining degrees in STEM fields. The grant supports the Latinos Gaining Access to Networks for Advancement in Science, or LAS GANAS ("the desire") program, which is providing academic support and coaching to Latino undergraduates who have an interest in STEM fields. To increase Latino STEM enrollments and raise science literacy, the program is working with other UIC units to expand recruiting in high schools and community colleges that serve large Latino populations. To facilitate the transfer of Latino college students, LAS GANAS is working with the City Colleges of Chicago to develop model transfer and articulation agreements. Program Trains Future Community Health Advocates TWO-YEAR, $143,000 GRANT from the Baxter International Foundation is supporting a program at the College of Medicine and the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System that trains high school students to be health advocates in their own communities. The CHAMPIONS NETWork program, spearheaded by UI Health's emergency department, launched last summer with 27 students from five area high schools. They took four weeks of classes and training at the COM, followed by a two-week internship in the emergency department, where students screened patients for health conditions and helped facilitate follow-up care. "There are several Chicago communities with an especially high burden of disease, with limited health resources," says Terry Vanden Hoek, MD, professor and head of emergency medicine at the COM and program executive director. "We conceived this program as a doubly beneficial way to help address these health disparities and provide basic health education and training that high school students could use to improve health in their neighborhoods, and their own academic and job skills." T A P H O T O : U I C N E W S S E R V I C E S P H O T O : U I C N E W S S E R V I C E S