HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Dr. Aaron M. McGuffin, associate professor in the department of pediatrics at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine, and a team of 48 students from 11 medical schools have created a medical curriculum e-book that was released this month online.

“Universal Notes for Medical Students 2013” is available on the Inkling store.

“We are very proud of Dr. McGuffin and his team for developing this new tool which combines old-school note-taking with 21st century technology,” said Dr. Joseph I. Shapiro, dean of the Marshall School of Medicine. “Their efforts are commendable and will provide medical students across the country with another avenue for success.”

McGuffin and colleagues initiated the project earlier this year.

“This first edition contains the majority of drugs, bugs and diseases that were determined to be important for medical students to know,” McGuffin said. “There is still a great deal of pertinent basic science information to add, but we are steadily filling those gaps.”

The book’s initial concept was created by McGuffin and student editors Becca Hayes, Marshall University School of Medicine; John Corker, Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine; Jessica Deslauriers, University of South Florida; Laura Halpin, University of Toledo; and David Savage, University of Texas at Houston. The concept team, which included others from Marshall’s School of Medicine, worked to establish a website, www.myuniversalnotes.com, to recruit medical students to write topics for the e-book.

The medical students submitted material on hundreds of topics to create the primary content of the e-book, which was then reviewed by the student editors and a physician panel to ensure accuracy and consistency of the material.

The e-book is organized into 21 easy-to-navigate chapters, primarily by systems.

“We used the existing national board outlines to help organize the material since they are the most complete documents currently available that describe what medical students should know,” Hayes said.

Deslauriers agreed, saying, "Universal Notes will change medical education by empowering students to customize their study materials while building upon accurate and relevant topics that address the core competencies of being a doctor."

The e-book is the first in a series of projects by Universal NotesTM aimed at revolutionizing the way medical students are educated around the world.

Date Posted: Monday, November 18, 2013