15. November 2022
Top Online Resources for Medical Students
The learning techniques of medical students are the strongest indicator of their academic performance. The most important learning techniques of the most successful medical students are:
- time management in an effective way,
- giving up distractions during the time given to study,
- planning in advance the chapters and the study time,
- collecting information from several sources and
- investing in a technology that can increase the effectiveness of the study.
As a medical student it is imperative to review the grades and consult the existing resources in your spare time, even if you do not have an exam in the near future, which help maintain the motivation for self-gratification and the fulfillment of your own dream.
In this article we will discuss what top resources are currently used by medical students with the aim of helping and providing you with a guide in searching for and finding the necessary information either as video lectures, writing or even tutoring purposes.
LECTURIO
Lecturio is an online video learning platform whose aim is to make high-quality online education available to as many people as possible, and spread specialized knowledge around the world. Lecturio is capable of providing a comprehensive overview of a variety of topics which can range from preclinical topics – anatomy, physiology, etc. to clinical content.
Each curriculum is composed of videos, questions and text-book articles. The curriculum is organised by systems and subjects allowing you to study different topics at the same time and track your progress while doing so.
The video lectures are short, concise and easy-to-follow, with all key concepts covered. At the end of each video lecture there is an integrated quiz that allows the student to actively learn. The concept page library has a comprehensive coverage of all important medical concepts, with detailed illustrations, charts and tables.
The question bank integrated with the platform has an exam-simulating interface that helps the student become familiar with actual exam situations. Lecturio is also avalable on IOS and Android as “The Lecturio Bookmatcher” and by simply entering the page number of the textbook you’re using or by scanning the relevant page with your phone, you can instantly be guided to all applicable videos for the topics you’re interested in.
You can register yor Lecturio account for free with no credit card required but you only get access to around 20% of all video lectures and quizez available. You need to get the premium version of Lecturio to have full access.
With the premium Lecturio account, you have acces to 6,500+ video lectures (600+ hours in total), 20,000+ quiz questions with a smart algorithm that determines an optimal point of recall, exam practice questions including detailed explanations and linked videos.
Some of the interesting features Lecturio offers are: 3D Anatomy models, offline function, downloadable slides and reversed learning.
OSMOSIS
Osmosis is a medical education platform that offers high quality videos on a variety of medical subjects and clinical content. Each video offers explanations across a wide range of topics, with questions and study notes to help build up the student’s knowledge at each individuals’ pace.
Osmosis has around 2000 videos covering a variety of topics, from anatomy and biochemistry to clinical reasoning – surgery and internal medicine. They offer personalised study schedules, flashcard resources and even a workspace where you can organize the courses you need to study. You can make the most of your time with the mobile app Osmosis, available on IOS and Android.
The 15,000 flashcards are written and reviewed by medical proffesionals and the spaced repetition technique sends the student specific flashcards at key intervals so that you don’t forget the essential information.
You can also test your knowledge with the 2,700+ USMLE-style case questions that also have a detailed answer explanations. To summarize pathology and physiology, Osmosis offers 1,200+ illustrated notes with full color images and tables.
Currently at Osmosis, every new member that choses the medical doctor plan gets 1 week for free with no credit card required.
MED MASTERY
Med Mastery provides interactive courses which help fine tune clinical skills. They are highly recommended by the British Medical Association as they bring outstanding contributions to medical literature.
All of the courses are fully CME credited and the medical proffesors involved in this project are renowed experts. The courses are delivered through video lessons and quizzes, and target doctors, students, nurses or other healthcare providers. They are slightly more expensive than other resources, however they are pitched at the level of practicing doctors so the quality is exceptional.
Med Mastery offers 2 access bundles, Pro (with CME credits) and Basic (without CME credits).
The major feature that comes with the members’ subscription includes unlimited access to specific courses that you want to study, with new courses added monthly. As a member you will also get lots of cases to practice what you’ve learnt and 24/7 training on any device.
DR. NAJEEB LECTURES
This is a video lecture series focused on teaching medical sciences to medical students. The lectures cover basic medical sciences and clinical medicine, consisting of around 1000 videos on anatomy, embriology, histology, physiology, pharmacology, immunology and pathology.
The website’s content is divided into courses and each lecture is taught by Dr. Najeeb himself. In terms of pricing, you will get lifetime access at a fixed purchase price. This includes access to all the existing video content – medical lectures and all the new videos that will be recorded and posted in the future. There’s a new lecture posted every week. Each lecture has english subtitles as well as a download option within the app.
PICMONIC
Picmonic is an audiovisual learning platform that uses memorable characters and stories centered on an evidence-based format. They make the language-learning process easier by teaching you medical terminology with memorable illustrations.
The platform can offer each student a personalised path of study so that each individual student has an array of lessons that are tailored for a variety of needs, with terms broken down into easy-to-navigate subcategories. The platform uses picmonics to cover around 2000 med-school topics such as pathology, physiology, immunology and so on. The platform targets medical students, nurse practitioners, pharmacy students and physical therapists.
The content is organised into playlists based on the exam you need to pass, the course you’re interested in, the body system you need to study and even the textbooks you have to use. In terms of pricing, you can choose between several paid plans.
- Each plan (Monthly, Semesterly, Annual, 24 months) includes unlimited acces to 1,900+ picmonics covering 22,000 facts.
- Unlimited quizzing with 22,000 multiple choice questions, daily quizzes and study guides, webinar videos and more. On top of that, you can add facts an create your own picmonic using the platform.
- The platform is available on IOS and Android as well, allowing you to study anytime and anywhere.
KENHUB
Kenhub is a learning platform dedicated to medical students that need to learn anatomy, histology and medical imaging. The platform offers visual, audio and interactive materials – 500 video tutorials with quizzes and scientific articles with atlas images for reference.
Each topic has its own learning objectives, video tutorial, quiz, atlas images and related scientific articles. Paying for the premium option of the platform comes with great advantages for every medical student:
- Anatomy atlas and articles available that allow you to browse thousands of full colour and high resolution anatomy illustrations, and even consult detailed articles linked to the area of study
- Access to video tutorials created by medical experts that cover everything you need to know about a specific topic
- You can easily change between Latin and English terminology as Latin is considered a universal anatomical language
- Every member gets access to the platform’s anatomy geeks that are able to help 24/7. These are trained anatomists and medical professionals that will answer any anatomy question you can have.
PUBMED
PubMed is a free resource that allows users to search for biomedical and life sciences literature. The goal of this platform is to improve health globally and personally.
The platform database contains 34 million citations and abstracts of biomedical literature. It is important to mention that the platform does not include full text journal articles but links to the full texts present when available from other sources.
Citations in PubMed are part of the biomedicine and health fields, related disciplines – life sciences, chemical sciences, behavioral sciences, etc. The major components forming this platform are MEDLINE, PubMed Central and Bookshelf.
MEDSCAPE
Medscape is a web portal intended for a vast audience, including medical doctors, medical students, consumers and educators. The platform offers a depth and breadth of content available for health care proffesionals as well as consumers. The platform convers extensively across multiple areas such as: news and perspectives, drugs and diseases, etc.
Conclusion
As a result of the extraordinarily large volume of information to which the medical student is exposed during the university study hours, the student must go beyond the traditional academic – university environment and to find the necessary resources that can help understand the subject as efficiently as possible. In the 21st century, medical students have one-click access to millions of informational resources, video lectures or written, on the Internet.
There are many other wonderful online resources for medical students too. Make sure to check out these also.
• https://www.ninjanerd.org • https://armandoh.org • https://www.pathoma.com • https://www.insimu.com • https://3d4medical.com • https://www.mayoclinic.org • https://www.epocrates.com • https://radiopaedia.org • https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/solutions/uptodate • https://www.khanacademy.org