I did a workshop on Orthopaedic Informatics at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN with Dr. Myles Clough.

Here is a summary of the various workshop sessions that were done during the morning session. The content of these workshop sessions has been integrated into their Intranet. 

Workshop on Orthopaedic Informatics 

Most orthopaedic surgeons use the Internet on a daily basis for personal business and for email. But many orthopaedists find using the Internet to find orthopaedic information difficult and frustrating. This hands-on workshop course aims to explain the reasons for this frustration, to equip attendees with tools and strategies to make using the Internet more rewarding and to demonstrate that there is plenty of valuable information out there if you know how to find it. 

The course will be given by Myles Clough, MD FRCSC DPhil, Clinical Instructor, Department of Orthopaedics, University of British Columbia and by Christian Veillette, MD, MSc, FRCSC, Clinical Fellow, Mayo Clinic. Both are editors of major orthopaedic resources on the Internet such as Orthogate (www.orthogate.org) and Orthopaedic Web Links (www.orthopaedicweblinks.com). 

Titles of workshop sessions

Introduction - Learning on the fly - Myles Clough  8:00 
This session will introduce the problem of information overload and the need to keep current by just-in-time learning. This life-long education posture requires orthopaedic surgeons to find valid and helpful information resources when they need it. The workshop proposes to show attendees how to do this.

Finding Orthopaedic Information - Myles Clough 8:10 
This workshop will introduce a rapid strategy for finding out about a subject as well as the outline of a more exhaustive search. Attendees will use the computer network to try out these strategies on selected orthopaedic subjects.

Keeping up to Date - Newsfeeds and RSS Readers Christian Veillette 8:55 
This session will introduce some of the ways in which orthopaedic information can be "pushed" at you without you having to search for it. The concept of open access/open source orthopaedics, barriers to knowledge translation and the ways in which individual orthopaedic surgeons can contribute to the 'Orthopaedic Internet' will be addressed.

Break 15 min                                                           9:30 

Accessing the Literature on the Internet Myles Clough 9:45 
Abstracts and full text of scientific journal articles are accessible on the Internet. This session will expand on ways to conduct a literature search and create a manageable reading list. The focus will be on using the PubMed interface with the Medline database of the National Library of Medicine but we will also conduct a comparison of a PubMed search with Google Scholar

Effective use of Search Engines Myles Clough 10:30 
Using a search engine such as Google to find orthopaedic information is often frustrating with many thousands of low quality returns. Attendees will use techniques to refine their searches and make them more productive.

Orthopaedic Web Links (OWL) - Christian Veillette 11:00 
OWL is the largest directory of orthopaedic information on the Internet and the only major such resource edited and maintained by orthopaedic surgeons. The features of the site will be reviewed and attendees can search for resources or add resources they have found or created. 

Open Access Orthopaedics - Christian Veillette 11: 20

Wrap-up and Discussion 11:40

The workshop was very well received and as you can see a lot can be covered in a single morning session.

If you are interested in hosting an Informatic Workshop please let us know. Myles and I will be posting several workshops and articles on Orthogate over the next several weeks.