FOAM stands for Free Open Access Meducation
Medical education for anyone, anywhere, anytime.
The term FOAM was coined in June 2012 in a pub in Dublin, over a pint of Guinness during ICEM 2012 [watch the Dublin video]
FOAM is the concept, #FOAMed is the Twitter hashtag.
FOAM is the movement that has spontaneously emerged from the exploding collection of constantly evolving, collaborative and interactive open access medical education resources being distributed on the web with one objective — to make the world a better place. FOAM is independent of platform or media — it includes blogs, podcasts, tweets, Google hangouts, online videos, text documents, photographs, facebook groups, and a whole lot more.
If you want to know how we practiced medicine 5 years ago, read a textbook.
If you want to know how we practiced medicine 2 years ago, read a journal.
If you want to know how we practice medicine now, go to a (good) conference.
If you want to know how we will practice medicine in the future, listen in the hallways and use FOAM.— from International EM Education Efforts & E-Learning by Joe Lex 2012
We review emergency medicine and critical care (EMCC) FOAM weekly in The LITFL Review. Anyone who reads it and follows the links will agree that EMCC FOAM resources are sophisticated, cutting edge learning resources that enable clinicians and students to update their knowledge and improve their understanding in a fun, motivating and time efficient way. It is all free, and can be accessed by anyone, at anytime, anywhere. We believe that together with asynchronous learning and the flipped classroom, FOAM is the future of medical education and lifelong learning.
In March 2013 the emergency medicine and critical care FOAM movement crystallized in a uniquely physical and online conference called SMACC (Social Media and Critical Care). We hope to see you again in 2014 — either physically or virtually! SMACC 2014 will be held in the Gold Coast (Australia) from March 17th to 19th.
Resources
This page is dedicated to collating the resources that healthcare professionals can access to assist in taking part in the FOAM movement.
What is FOAM?
- Creating the FOAM network
- History of the #FOAMed Hashtag - FOAM and the future of medical education [EM News PDF]
- FOAM Image Collection
- The #FOAMed revelation by Joel D (@cmedik) and the potential for a #FOAMed platform
- FOAM reaches the UK with Southampton CCP (@sotonCCP)
- As a supporter and advocate of #FOAMed you can demonstrate your allegiance to your followers by including the #FOAMed hashtag in your profile
- Let us know by adding your details to the #FOAMed supporter form
- Find and Follow the #FOAMed advocates on Twitter
- Follow the #FOAMed conversation on Twitter
- Follow the #FOAMed conversation on Google Plus
- Follow the #FOAMed Analytics with Symplur
- For EM/ ICU and other critical care folk, the #FOAMcc hastag is now also being used on Twitter.
- GoogleFOAM – search engine designed to interrogate all the FOAM resources online, including emergency medicine and critical care (EMCC) blogs (via @RaineDoc)
- FOAMEM RSS – Syndicated feed aggregator across all EMCC blogs (via @EMChatter)
- #FOAMed for GP
- #FOAMed on Scoop.it
- Polish FOAM - Pora Na TeleSORa – Polish community blog and What is #FOAMed?- (MERITUS)
- Turkish FOAM - What is FOAMed?
- Italian FOAM – The FOAM story (EMPills) and FOAM instructions (Malato Critico)
- Dutch FOAM - Netherlands #FOAMed … and the EMDutch blog
- Czech FOAM - Jan Štros from the Czech republic has a FOAMtastic ECG blog
- Mongolian FOAM - FOAMed Mongolia
- USask FOAM – FOAMed Canadian Collaborative
Lots are people are talking about FOAM and #FOAMed. Here is what some of them are saying:
- KevinMD — The flipped classroom could be the future of medicine
- Rob Rogers, from iTeachEM (formerly EMRAP: Educator’s Edition) has this to say about FOAM [FOAM Video]
- iTeachEM — Joe Lex on Learning EM
- MedCrunch Interview with Stesha Doku
- EM Ireland – FOAMed Resources
- Free Emergency Talks — International EM Education Efforts & E-Learning
- ER Mentor — FOAM(e) is good for you!
- ER Mentor Prezi — FOAMed 2.0
- ScienceRoll — Free Open-Access Meducation: Video
- The Short Coat — FOAM Party! (The Future of Medical Education)
- Underneath EM — The FOAM Project and FOAM is bubbling up – bringing FOAM to the medical masses
- EM Armamentarium – First week of FOAM
- Intensive Care Network — Podcast 31: Chris Nickson on Erectile Dysfunction and #FOAMed
- David Anderson — 21st Century Education (video of a lecture with a prehospital focus)
- e-LIME — Trends in Online Learning: #FOAMed
- StEmlyn’s — The #FOAMtastic 2012 top ten from St.Emlyn’s
- Curbside Consult — Disrupting Medical Education by Redefining “Social Media” (by Mike Cadogan)
- KI Docs – The Future direction of FOAM
- Bill Hinckley – Let’s Get #FOAMed!
- Meddle on the concept of FOAM
- Lincoln EM and the #FOAMed Project
Bill Hinckley (president of AMPA – Air Medical Physician Association) on why he thinks everyone should get #FOAMed:
A discussion of FOAM by the team at ACILCI (in Turkish!):
Find out how many people are using #FOAMed (and who they are… and what they are saying) on the Symplur #FOAMed homepage. Also, this is the answer to Why the #FOAMed hashtag?
Find FOAM
Search for FOAM using this customised Google search tool.
Why would anyone want to make FOAM?
Consider these three questions:
Q1. Have you ever spent untold hours preparing a talk that was attended by 8 people — of which a few were cognitively incapacitated by a recent night shift and the rest by post-prandial stupor? (That’s right the lowest level of expertise is not unconscious incompetence, it’s plain old unconscious!)
Q2. Did you go into medicine to help others?
Q3. Do you want a quick, easy way to establish an international reputation as an effective clinical educator?
Many of us interested in clinical education would say ‘hell yes!’ to all of these questions. That’s why it makes perfect sense for us to record videos of our presentations, turn the research we’ve done and experiences we’ve had into a blogposts, and record our discussions as podcasts. Then share them with all the world.
The above is an excerpt from the iTeachEM post titled Individual Interactive Instruction
LITFL talks about FOAM
Mike Cadogan talks about FOAM at the International Conference of Emergency Medicine 2012 in Dublin here:
Chris Nickson talks about FOAM at the Bedside Critical Care Conference 2012 in the Whitsunday Islands here:
Chris Nickson’s 400 second long guide to handling information overload in an age of FOAM: “Dr INFOlove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The FOAM” (a PK SMACC-talk):
Do you Believe in FOAM?
Become a FOAM supporter!
The LITFL Review’s EMCC FOAM Resources
Academic Life in Emergency Medicine — Adventure Medicine— A Life at Risk — All LA Conference — Al Sacchetti’s Youtube — Bedside Ultrasound — Better in Emergency Medicine — Broome Docs — CCM-L.org — CLIC-EM — Critical Care Perspectives in EM — Dave on Airways —DrGDH — Dr Smith’s ECG Blog — ECG Academy — ED Exam — EDTCC — EKG Videos — EM Basic — EM Core Content — EMCrit — Emergency Medical Abstracts —EMERJENCYWEBB – Emergency Medicine Cases — Emergency Medicine Education — Emergency Medicine News — Emergency Medicine Ireland — Emergency Medicine Tutorials—Emergency Medicine Updates —Emergucate —EM Literature of Note — empem.org — EMpills — Emergency Physicians Monthly — EM Lyceum — EMProcedures — EMRAP — EMRAP: Educators’ Edition — EMRAP.TV — ER CAST — Free Emergency Medicine Talks — GMEP — Gmergency! — Greater Sydney Area HEMS — HQmeded.com — ICU Rounds — Impactednurse — Intensive Care Network —iTeachEM - Keeping Up With Emergency Medicine — KeeWeeDoc — LipheLongLurnERdok — MDaware — MD+ CALC — MedEDMasters — Medical Education Videos — Medicina d’urgenza — Medicine for the Outdoors — Micrognome — Movin’ Meat — Neurointensive Care — Pediatric EM Morsels — PEM ED — PHARM — Priceless Electrical Activity — Procedurettes — PulmCCM.org — Radiology Signs — Radiopaedia — Resus.com.au — Resus.ME — RESUS Room — Richard Winters’ Physician Leadership — SCANCRIT — SCCM Blogs — SCCM Podcast — SEMEP — SinaiEM — SinaiEM Ultrasound — SMART EM — SonoSpot — StEmylns — Takeokun — The Central Line — The Ember Project —The Emergency Medicine Resident Blog — The NNT — The Poison Review — The Sharp End — The Short Coat — The Trauma Professional’s Blog — The Underneaths of EM — ToxTalk — TJdogma — Twin Cities Toxicology — Ultrarounds — Ultrasound Podcast — UMEM Educational Pearls — Ultrasound Village
FOAMed by Domhnall Brannigan – click image for source
About Chris Nickson
