Online Knowledge Services in Medical Education:
MDConsult™ and its use by medical students
Fleshandbones.com – a new site for UK medical students

Caroline Hird and Andrew Stevenson
Harcourt Health Sciences, Europe

ABSTRACT:

Medical students are increasingly turning to screen-based services as a key part of their learning. MDConsult™ is a for-profit, US-based service that provides users with access to a range of textbooks, reference works, journals, and news sources, allowing them to search across this wide spectrum of content types. The service is now installed in nearly 90% of US medical schools and teaching hospitals. It is heavily used by students, especially as support for problem-based courses. This demonstration will show the main features of MDConsult™, focusing especially on how it has proved of benefit to students.

Fleshandbones.com is a newly-launched site designed specifically for UK medical students and their teachers. It provides a mix of textbook content, image library, test material, games and general information. As this demonstration will show, Fleshandbones.com will be the fun place for medical students to hang out.

Caroline Hird
Harcourt Publishers Limited
32 Jamestown Road
London NW1 7BY
e-mail: caroline_hird@harcourt.com
tel: +44 20 7 424 4537
fax: +44 20 7 424 4752

Andrew Stevenson
Harcourt Health Sciences Europe
1-3 Baxters Place
Edinburgh
EH1 3AF
Scotland
email: andrew_stevenson@harcourt.com
tel: +44 7850 602 939
fax: +44 131 558 1274
website: http://www.harcourt-international.com