I’m very excited to be attending the MedBiquitous annual meeting for the second year in a row. The conference is held each year on the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine campus in Baltimore. This year’s event is June 5-6, and registration is still open.
Why do we go? For at least ten reasons:
1. MedBiq is a true community of practice. Where else can you meet an MD who will hook you up to a stress detector that fires the data to a learning record store via xAPI in real time? (I’m referencing a workshop led by Dr. David Topps and Ellen Meiselman from last year’s conference.) MedBiquitous attendees are innovators meeting to swap ideas about how to do bleeding-edge things.
2. Real xAPI work is presented at MedBiq. We’re presenting on a project Web Courseworks did using this next generation interoperability standard for online learning with our client, Chad Jackson of MedBiq participates in the ongoing development of xAPI. Speaking of which…
3. Standards are written at MedBiq. MedBiquitous’s mission is “advancing the health professions through technology standards.” As a learning technology company with a strategic focus on the health professions, we could not do what we do without technology standards. MedBiquitous’s Activity Report standard, for example, is at the heart of the PARS system that is key to CME.
4. MedBiq is a place to learn about influential projects. MedBiq attendees are working on projects that help define our future. For instance, we’re looking forward to a presentation by two staffers from our new client the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) on their Convey system for centralizing conflict of interest (COI) disclosures by faculty. We might end up integrating our technology with Convey sometime soon.
5. MedBiq is academic. We have an academic background, and we like the setting at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Last year’s keynote on technology integration efforts at Vanderbilt School of Medicine was inspiring, and we’re looking forward to this year’s keynote from Dr. Charles Prober of the Stanford School of Medicine.
6. MedBiq is public sector. We’ll be attending a case study presented by Shane Gallagher of the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Initiative on integrating training platforms through xAPI. This is an example of the kind of applications we’ve seen interest in across Federal departments, including from the Veterans Administration.
7. MedBiq is largely non-commercial. Some conferences we go to are more about purchasers finding vendors, and that’s an important part of how projects get done. But we like to let our hair down and be pretty geeky and academic every once in a while.
8. MedBiq’s format is innovative. Our presentation will be a “Speedy Standards Story.” That’s a five-minute, five-slide brief presented back-to-back with nine other sessions. Nothing is scheduled against the Speedy Standards Stories – it’s a plenary. Then there are breakout 50-minutes discussion opportunities with each Speedy Standards Story presenter. Attendees can get a sampling of each group’s work, then get a chance to dive deep with the presenters who especially interest them.
9. MedBiq deals with fascinating learning challenges. This conference is about helping highly educated medical professionals to master advanced content and techniques that are sometimes not taught at any school. MedBiquitous is at the nexus of adult learning, continuing education, medical research, and emerging technologies, and as such it’s an honor to be allowed in the door.
10. MedBiq is intimate. The whole conference happens on one floor of an academic building. After a day of intense conferring, you all go out to dinner together. It’s an opportunity to really confer and learn from your colleagues.
Chad and I will be talking about the joint CHEST/WCW project to pipe Laerdal simulator data to an LMS via xAPI and an LRS. Our Speedy Standards Session on Monday is followed by a 50-minute discussion at 10:40. Hope to see you there!
If you would like to learn more about the CHEST/WCW xAPI project (also featuring Watershed LRS), please download our free white paper case study today!
