6 Days and Counting!

19 May

Is anyone else as excited and anxious as I am for the HAPS Annual Conference?! My presentation is almost all squared away, and I get more excited by the day to meet all of you and have a chance to engage in some interesting and fruitful conversations. I hope we can use this week’s post to get each other energized and share some tips for the Conference!420-las-vegas-welcome-sign.imgcache.rev1343400150596

So, HAPS Veterans, tell us…

1. What can we expect from the Conference??

2. Have you had a chance to look over the schedule? What workshops or seminars have you added to your “MUST SEE” list?

3. Will you be presenting? When? Where? Who should go?

4. What are you most looking forward to?

I’ll start the discussion by answering a few of my own questions! :)

1. This is my first HAPS Conference! It will also be my first time in Vegas… So if you’re familiar with the area and see me, feel free to scoop me up and show me around!

2. Unfortunately, I will not be able to stay the whole week, but Tuesday alone has plenty of workshops I’m thrilled to attend… Especially the POGIL Workshops to see what activities Murray Jensen and his team will be presenting. I am also really interested in the “Mythbusters of A&P” by Ken Saladin (sounds really neat and helpful!), “Moving A&P Outside of the Classroom” by Sarah Straud (I think I could definitely apply some of these strategies and activities in my own classroom), and the “Case Study Approach to Teaching of Physiology” by Chaya Gopalan. Can’t wait to see what you all have in store for us!

… Speaking of not being able to attend the full Conference… Is there any way to still find out what was discussed during other workshops? Will there be posts, forums, or documents uploaded to the HAPS website or Conference app when it’s all said and done so we can keep the conversations going or see what we missed?

3. I will be presenting on Tuesday, from 9:30-10:30 in DA 110. Anyone who is interested in learning more about my experiences, challenges, and successes of being a High School A&P teacher should attend. I really hope we can collaborate together to strengthen the connections between high school teachers and our university counterparts (you)! :)

4. And here’s how I figure out why very general questions don’t always work… There are too many things I’m excited about to decide on just one!

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and seeing you at the Conference!

Conference Preparations!

12 May

The HAPS Conference is quickly approaching and I am anxiously awaiting its arrival. I downloaded the app and have started to make note of the presentations and workshops I’d like to attend. If you haven’t downloaded the app yet, go get it from the Apple app store/Android Marketplace (it’s awesome!)

If you look through the presentation options, you will see that, yes, yours truly will be presenting Tuesday morning! :) I am really looking forward to chatting and meeting with you! That being said, this year is full of a lot of “firsts” for me, and this will be my first professional presentation of this calibre. I am sure most of you are very well accustomed to presenting to your colleagues and superiors and am hopeful you have a mental checklist or tips you could share! While I am very familiar with presenting to a group of high school students, I’m afraid my typical engagement and reinforcement tactics may not work on the HAPS audience! (But I could be wrong… How do you feel about stamps, stickers, and perhaps mildly inappropriate jokes?) :)

My students will be giving their final presentations shortly after I return from the conference so while this is definitely going to be a learning experience for me, I’m excited to turn it into a teachable moment in which I can share my preparation tips and strategies for giving an important presentation. So, what kinds of things do you look for in a “stellar” presentation? How do you prepare for an important presentation, or what would you recommend to your students? What kinds of questions should I prepare for? And lastly, I would like to include my students as much as possible in this experience (because after all, they’re the reason I’m here), so is there any information or questions you’d be interested in knowing about them before the conference or during my presentation? I plan to chat with them a bit this week about the conference and get their perspective and ideas.

And as this week comes to end, let me be the last to say, HAPPY TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK! You are greatly appreciated for all that you do! Some of my most memorable and formative moments happened with and because of my college professors, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that. I hope you all received the recognition you deserve, and again, thank you!

Final Project – Research Papers

5 May

As the end draws near, I have finally decided on an end-of-year “project”, of sorts. I have asked my students to create a “Disease Diary” in which they research a disease from each of the body systems we have covered this year. I figure this is a project that will prepare them for many of the things they will do/see/study in college or encounter if they pursue a career in the medical field. Not only is this a summative assessment of their participation in my class, but many of my students do not have experience writing papers (especially not scientific papers) or utilizing peer-reviewed resources to do research; I am hopeful I can guide them through their research and writing to create well-referenced, high quality projects that will prepare them for the many papers and essays they will be required to write in the future. 

On that note, what databases or websites can I suggest my students visit to find peer-reviewed, primary sources that high school students can use to find information about various diseases and disorders? Many of my students are not native English speakers and have a rather limited scientific vocabulary (although I have tried my best to change that!) But if I do not provide specific sites and sources, I am afraid to see what kinds of things they might come up with! :) I have been told before that when in doubt, use the references provided at the end of the wikipedia article, but I am still hesitant to suggest that. When I was in college, we had access to the library’s database of articles and books, but I am not sure what options our high school offers. As far as I know, the research will have to be done entirely through free, public databases. Do any of you have any suggestions or ideas??

And, lastly, what is your biggest “pet-peeve” in your students’ writing? I’d love to ensure I address those little annoyances! :)

Thanks for your suggestions!

Spring “Cleaning”

3 May

The first time I saw an advertisement for Colon Hydrotherapy was in 2004 in Phoenix, Arizona. The concept sounded quite frightening to me, and I couldn’t understand why it would be attractive to people. I was young, carefree, and with my diet overflowing with fruits, vegetables and whole grains, I couldn’t imagine what would prompt someone to seek out a colonic. Over the past 9 years, I have seen a steady increase in products on TV, websites, supplement stores, you name it, advertising “colon cleansing” products, claiming to treat not only chronic constipation but every sort of ailment.

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In a time of “faster, sooner, now” it is hard for all of us to resist the temptation of products that make claims to both lose weight and help us feel healthier, which is why colon cleansing products have their own shelves in stores.

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Regularity is a very fishy topic. I did a little digging and talking with GI doctors at work. Some recommend a bowel movement (no specifics) every other day, while others recommend something of forearm length every day. Ok, enough poop talk, but you can imagine the wide range that people fall into here, and how it can be easy to convince yourself that your bowel function is abnormal. Factor in stress, and the picture becomes even cloudier. I could spend a year blogging about the impact of the nervous system on GI function, rather disturbances in GI function, but let’s stick to the current question: “Is colon “cleansing” safe? Effective? What about herbal supplements versus hydrotherapy?

I recently was in and out of GI care for non specific symptoms such as pain, bloating, reflux, all of which ended up being resolved by tripling my water intake and decreasing stress through meditation. 3 MRIs and countless lab tests later, I couldn’t have felt sillier. Before I got a handle on my symptoms on my own, I was signed up for a 5 session package at a hydrotherapy clinic. When I mentioned this to my doctor, I was surprised that his reaction was not immediately negative. He said that some people have used it with success, others have been injured, so it seems to rely heavily on the quality of treatment delivery, and the reason for the constipation. He of course pointed out that the problem with this therapy and other natural therapies, which we’ve discussed, is a lack of clinical evidence. How, for example, can you do a randomized trial on a procedure like this? 

I completed a brief literature review, and as I expected, found it to be a very polarizing topic. The most fair and balanced review I found was in the International Journal of Clinical Practice. The abstract and overview are here, and if anyone would like the full text, I can email that to you.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1742-1241.2009.02166.x/full

I did not keep the appointments. Call my crazy, but the more I teach research and evidence-based medicine, the more critical and fearful I become of any products, treatments, or “expert opinions” that cannot substantiate claims beyond anecdotal support, however overwhelming. Do I believe that because there hasn’t been extensive controlled research into a treatment, that it is not effective for some people, or is a sham? Certainly not. I can especially believe that with hydrotherapy, given the fact that it is simply warm water, and enemas are water with a saline solution that are used quite frequently in clinical care. Not only that, some doctors prescribe that osmotic laxatives be used on a daily basis for some patients. Clearly, the topic requires continued investigation, and as disorders such as IBS with no clear cause become more common, I believe the safety, benefits and risks of colon cleansing in whatever fashion will become more clear. 

If anyone who is not too shy is willing to share any experiences with cleansing products, we’d love to hear from you!

Thank you for your readership, and best of health to you! 

Krista

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Professional Development

1 May

Professional development is one of those buzzwords in academia that makes some people excited, and it makes others cringe. To me, the main reason for this difference in opinion is based on desire versus must do. Some people, like myself, desire to gain more knowledge and to be on the cutting edge in anatomy and physiology. People like me love professional development in all shapes and sizes. However, I am also a person that cringes at the thought of professional development. This occurs when someone (a supervisor) tells me that I HAVE TO take a certain training that a) I feel I am overqualified for, b) I don’t have time for, c) doesn’t apply to my job, or d) all of the above. This type of professional development seems to me to be a waste of my time.

I will focus here on the good side of professional development. Learning more about something that you are inspired about has never been easier. In this era of technology, it is pretty easy to find reputable sources of online material in anatomy and physiology. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of bad information out there.

There are three ways to obtain professional development online that I would like to discuss: MOOC’s, do it yourself, and actual online coursework.

MOOC is an acronym that has varying meanings depending upon whom you ask. Most say MOOC is massive open online course. The basic idea is that there are a couple platforms out there for MOOCs that offer coursework in literally dozens of areas. The pros of MOOCs is that they are generally offered by reputable universities and in a wide range of topics. The cons are that they are unofficial course (unless something is officially worked out with your employer), the courses do not count as credits, and the timing of the course may not meet your schedule.

You can just research and read for yourself. I’ve listed below 4 of my favorite free online resources.The big pro here is flexibility. The major con, of course, is that it is unofficial.

Respiratory physiology and pathophysiology – http://meded.ucsd.edu/ifp/jwest/index.html

Neuroscience – http://neuroscience.uth.tmc.edu/

Endocrinology – http://www.endotext.org/

and of course, the HAPS website – www.hapsweb.org

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Lastly, one can engage in actual online coursework. For many, this is a necessary aspect of being an instructor in higher education. Sometimes an accrediting body may question one’s credentials. Other times, someone might want to add a new field to their credentialing. Most credentialing bodies ask for 18 graduate hours of work in a field in which they teach. For those of us in anatomy and physiology, sometime it gets tricky. A&P is often taught in the biology department, thus HAPS has created the HAPS-Institute, which offers graduate level biology courses. I encourage you to visit the HAPS-I page by clicking HAPS-I to learn more.

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Online Resources and Research Update

28 Apr

In a post a few weeks ago, I mentioned the exciting opportunity I was given to work with a medical school in Houston that was testing the efficacy of a cardiovascular unit that they had designed. A few of you asked for more information and now I have a chance to share!

The research program is through the Center for Educational Outreach at Baylor University College of Medicine. The cardiovascular unit, if effective, will be released on their website http://www.bioedonline.org/ where they already have a plethora of awesome interactive, online lessons and resources. I have used their online resources many times in the past (especially when I was student teaching in biology), and found the lessons and activities to be very engaging, comprehensive, and very visually appealing. They have everything from simulations to articles, videos, slides, and tutorials. I am so excited to learn about the results of the study and hopefully the unit will be available for everyone soon! Seeing it on paper in a big research binder and seeing it as an interactive, online unit will be so different, and it’s neat that I can say I played I role in that!BioEd-3

It is resources like this (the bioedonline.org) and others like the APS Archives (another incredible website) that make my life so much easier! It’s so helpful and exciting to have resources to refer to that I know are high quality, reliable, and accessible for both me and my students, and finding those kinds of resources has proven to be one of my toughest challenges this year. It’s difficult for me to trust online resources, but I can rest a little easier knowing they are backed by scholars, researchers, and academics. If you know of any others I should check out, please let me know, and if you have any other questions about the study with Baylor, ask away! I am not sure how much information I can disclose right now since it is an ongoing study, but I’d be more than happy to find out or share once the study ends!

Put a Pin it That!

26 Apr

Acupuncture is one of the oldest medical practices in the world, having been used in China and other areas of Asia for thousands of years. Acupuncture involves the stimulation of anatomical points on the body that are connected along pathways known as meridians, using a variety of techniques. Most often, this will involve penetrating the skin with thin, metallic needles, with or without electrical stimulation.

Acupuncture is recognized by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as being “widely” practiced by thousands of physicians, dentists, acupuncturists and other practitioners to successfully treat a wide variety of conditions, including pain, digestive function, infertility, headaches, and more. Acupuncture is currently even covered by some insurance companies and the reimbursement programs are growing, especially for the treatment of chronic pain. According to the 2007 National Health Interview Survey, which included a comprehensive survey of CAM use by Americans, an estimated 3.1 million U.S. adults and 150,000 children had used acupuncture in the previous year.

I was only 19 years old when I was first exposed to acupuncture. After 6 months of being bounced from one doctor to another for intense pain throughout my entire body, coupled with fevers and fatigue, I was given a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (which in my opinion are diagnoses of exclusion when the answers are yet to be found). My physician at the time, a pain specialist, gave me 2 options: a spinal pain block that would be placed in my lumber vertebrae so that I could administer pain medication to myself as needed, or try acupuncture. 

Having grown up in a very isolated corner of Northeastern PA, where not even massage therapy was common and there were certainly no yoga classes, I was skeptical of Complementary Medicine, and wondered how laying on a table with pins in my body could help me. Was I ever wrong. 

I was privileged to meet David and Ming-Ming Molony, the owners of Lehigh Valley Acupuncture in Catasaqua, PA. My total physical, emotional and spiritual well-being were assessed in a way I never experienced before, and a treatment plan was tailored to address the integration of all of these components. The discomfort was quite minimal while the acupuncture needles were being inserted, and any discomfort was well worth the feeling both during the treatment and afterwards. Within a few months, nearly all of my pain was relieved. It came back, however, after I discontinued treatments. Months later, after extensive testing and clinical assessments, I was diagnosed with Chronic Lyme Disease. It took doctors 2 years to figure it out due to controversy surround the Western Blot.

Although acupuncture could not cure a rampant bacterial infection, I marvel at the fact that not a single prescription I was given to manage my pain came close to the effect acupuncture had.  More importantly, I never viewed medicine in the same way again. Today I take advantage of the best of both traditional and complementary medicine and encourage others to do so as well. 

Here are some great resources detailing the theory and physiology of acupuncture in better detail:

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/acupuncture/introduction.htm

http://acupuncture.com/education/theory/acuintro.htm

Best of health to you!

Krista

Anatomy and physiology education at Experimental Biology 2013

24 Apr

I am writing this latest blog while on a plane, returning home to Indiana. Like many other HAPS members, I also am a member in several of our sister societies. This past week, many HAPS members put on their American Association of Anatomists (AAA) or American Physiological Society (APS) ‘hats’ as we participated in Experimental Biology (EB) 2013. Experimental Biology is composed of multiple associations, and their yearly meeting typically is in April each year. Over 12,000 scientists and educators converge on a city and share the latest bench and educational research.

This year, the meeting was in Boston, scheduled to open the Saturday morning after the horrific bombing at the Boston marathon. Many were scheduled to arrive on Friday, the day the city was locked down as the suspects were involved in a shoot out with police. Thankfully, people were able to safely arrive (although most were sequestered in their hotel for the day) and the police were able to capture the suspect.

One of the neat things about EB is that you may attend any of the sessions offered by your or other affiliated societies. Thus, a AAA member may attend an APS session, an APS member may attend a Society of Nutrition symposium, and so on. There simply are too many interesting concurrent sessions to attend!

My focus was on the anatomy education sessions, where I listened to talks about incorporating anatomy in an integrated medical curriculum, the use of team based learning in anatomy, the flipped classroom, and more. I tweeted about the specifics of these sessions throughout the conference. (If you are interested in following me, my twitter handle is @vdoloughlin). In addition, my graduate students and I each presented posters on our anatomical education research. I was able to connect with colleagues, share ideas, and see a truly wonderful city that did not let an act of terror get the best of them.

While EB2013 was energizing and exciting, I am looking forward to going home, seeing my family, and finishing up the semester. And in less than one month’s time, I can’t wait to reconnect with my HAPS family in Las Vegas for our annual meeting! Will you be at this year’s HAPS Annual meeting? Please comment below and let me know!

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Student-Centered, Student-Driven Instruction

23 Apr

As our year is winding down, we are finally coming to the end of our curriculum, and the students are noticing how little there is left on our calendar! I’m trying to get my students involved in lots of activities to keep their energy and motivation up through the end of the year. Each student will be working on an activity/poster/project that they will share with the class to showcase all they have learned this year.

One of the students in my Anatomy and Physiology class has expressed a passion for going to medical school and becoming an Endocrinologist. While we have covered the Endocrine system throughout the year in our discussion of other systems, I was not planning to do an entire endocrine unit. This shining student, however, has volunteered to teach the class about the endocrine system and I couldn’t be more thrilled! It’s so refreshing to have students who are motivated, interested, and willing to go above and beyond!

What great student-led discussions or activities have you had in your classrooms? What direction should I guide her in with her approach to the endocrine system? As this is not something I originally planned, I have very few lessons or resources to provide her with, but I know she will do a great job researching and learning all that she can. If you have any suggestions about main ideas, interesting facts, or cool resources for the endocrine system, she and I would love to know about them!

Also, as it turns out, the reason she has such a strong desire to become an Endocrinologist is because she, herself, was recently diagnosed with Turner’s Syndrome and has come to greatly admire the doctors who have helped her and ignited her passion for science and medicine. So, on that note, thank you to all you wonderful doctors who inspire our kids and students and encourage them to take an interest in science and their health!

The Human Spirit

18 Apr

I’m taking a week hiatus from discussing the next type of alternative therapy on my list. In light of this week’s events in Boston, I would be remiss to continue writing as if an average week in American life occurred. 

As Anatomy and Physiology enthusiasts, we spend all of our time discussing, studying, teaching, researching and appreciating the wondrous creation that is the human body. Its ability to adapt to disease, to recover from major illnesses and injuries, and meet all of the demands we place on it throughout life is nothing short of a miracle.

What we don’t take enough time to marvel at is the power and resilience of the human spirit. Maybe it is because we only hear about that bad things that happen in the news. If aliens came to Earth and stood in line at a supermarket, they would leave with 2 assumptions: 1) Earthlings take enjoyment in the pain and shame of others, and 2) there’s little good to be found. Sadly, it takes the most horrific of events and tragedies, whether committed by fellow humans or unavoidable disasters, for us to look up from our tabloids and reality shows and realize what binds all of us. As humans, we are bound, not by our mutual interest in the pain or humiliation of others, but in our ability to come together in our darkest hours to perform heroic acts of service. I feel I can confidently say that there isn’t a single person in this nation who hasn’t felt deeply saddened by this tragedy and wished there were any possible way that they could help the victims or the search for the responsible parties. 

My hat goes off, and my heart goes out, to all of the emergency response workers, doctors, firefighters, policeman and civilians who worked tirelessly to minimize fatalities in Boston this week. I cannot imagine the things that they saw, and how easily fear could have overcome anyone on the scene. So many people, without regard to their own safety, rushed to help. We saw this on 9/11, and it’s a great comfort to know that even in the face of danger, the innate human desire to help and save others cannot be shaken.

The heart may beat throughout our lives, bones may withstand incredible forces, and the immune system may fight impossible infections. While fascinating, they pale in comparison to the power of the human spirit in the face of adversity. When we think back on April 15th in Boston, let us remember not the cruel and senseless act of the responsible parties, but the immeasurable compassion and bravery of everyone else involved. 

My money is on next year’s Boston Marathon being the biggest event running has ever seen.

Krista

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