You walk into class and, instead of flipping open your textbook, you flip open your laptop and look up your textbook online. You dig your iPod touch out of your bag and, instead of cranking up your favorite song, you start browsing through your apps — because your professor told you to.
Sounds like a class from the future, right? Wrong. This is just some of the technology that students in the U. Central Florida College of Medicine will be using this year.
The college of medicine recently debuted its state-of-the-art medical education building that features technology that no other medical school in the state of Florida has, and in one case, is the first of its kind in the U.S.
“The dean gave us the challenge to make this the most technologically advanced medical school, and we needed to do that,” said Ron Knappenberger, the assistant director of educational technology for the College of Medicine.
A release on the college’s website states that the 170,000 square-foot building located in Lake Nona cost $65 million and was constructed on time while staying within the budget.
According to Knappenberger, the building has high-tech lecture halls that have automated control systems, meaning that professors can control the audio, video and lighting in the room.
Professors can also record their presentations, which can come in handy for those students who can’t make it to class.
The main lecture hall seats more than 350 students and will be used for guest speakers and lectures by Nobel laureates and leading scientists.
The room is also equipped with high-definition video and surround sound — perfect for the “movie nights” that the dean plans on having for the students.
The Clinical Skills and Simulation Center provides real-world opportunities for students to practice their skills.
The center is equipped with computerized mannequins that students can draw blood from and use to determine heart rhythms.
According to the release, “each of the center’s 12 examination rooms has video recording and computer monitoring, so faculty members can observe and evaluate students in action.”
The microscopy lab is equipped with a 10-headed microscope that can display pictures of specimens on multiple video monitors. Students will also be working with “digitized specimens” instead of real ones.
Wendy Spirduso Sarubbi, media relations coordinator for the college of medicine explained that because some specimens are so unique, and even rare, it can be difficult to obtain large amounts of them. She said that this also keeps a consistency to what the students are seeing.
That same stride for consistency is the driving force behind the anatomy lab and the exclusive technology housed there.
The lab’s 23 32-inch flat-screen computers — 22 hang over each of the dissection tables — were specifically designed for UCF by Mitsubishi.
“I saw this technology at a trade show and the manufacturer sent me a demo – and it was bad,” said Knappenberger who has had a working relationship with Mitsubishi for several years.
He then approached Mitsubishi to see if they would be interested in designing the technology, and they gladly came on board. In fact, they changed their production schedule to accommodate UCF.
According to Knappenberger, the computers have touch screens that allow the students to look up information while performing dissection.
The professor’s terminal has a MiniMac mounted on the back, which is linked to digital cameras.
Those cameras enable the professor to record dissection and link them simultaneously to every other computer in the lab as well as to lecture halls throughout the building, so that students in other classes can watch the dissection as well.
Knappenberger said that with this technology — as is the case in the microscopy lab — students won’t have to gather around a single body during dissection.
Aside from the technology in the building, students will be using digital textbooks instead of paper-and-ink textbooks and second-year students will be given iPod Touches, which have many medical apps that the students can use to aid them in their studies.
“I think the idea is to help educate 21st century doctors, to prepare doctors for treating in this century,” Sarubbi said.
The College of Medicine also announced that members of the community will now be able to will their bodies to the college for medical students to study. The University of Miami and the University of Florida are the only other schools in Florida that people can will their bodies to.
“It’s a tremendous gift,” said Sarubbi about those who donate their bodies to science. “Dr. German says that [those who donate] are really donating the students’ first patient.”
Students attending orientation for the college of medicine have gotten to tour the tech-savvy building, and according to Sarubbi, they like what they’re seeing.
“The new students are very excited,” she said, “and the returning students are a little jealous.”
Sarubbi said that the new technology was the number one reason students chose to enroll at the college of medicine.
“The first-year students said what drove them to UCF was what the medical college had in cutting-edge, high-tech ways to learn,” she said. “We have students from California and Tennessee to New York and Florida and they all said that technology was of great importance to them.”