The development of AI services, including text-to-image models like DALL-E and Midjourney, has grown in recent years, enabling the creation of images from textual descriptions. These models are used across industries, such as entertainment and advertising, but there are also risks associated with using these text-to-image generative models, including discrimination, misuse, and the spread of misinformation. Discrimination involves cultural, racial, and gender biases; misuse includes privacy violations and harmful content; and misinformation risks destabilizing society by generating misleading or harmful content. While AI is being explored in education, there is a lack of research on how text-to-image models can challenge biases in healthcare students. This is critical since healthcare professionals' conscious or unconscious norms, values, and attitudes have been identified as partial explanations for inequality in healthcare. Text-to-image models has a great potential to increase the emphasis on norm awareness by creating images that challenge the students’ norms. Norm criticism is an approach that identify and challenge what is generally accepted as "normal" in society, enabling students to identify various norms that may cause prejudice, discrimination, and marginalization, thereby developing their norm awareness. To achieve this, it is essential to integrate diversity and inclusion principles when using AI to ensure that we don’t maintain social biases.

In this pilot study, we have chosen to limit the analysis to the representation of nurses and patients in the generated images, focusing on age, gender, and race/ethnicity. A total of 200 images were generated using Midjourney. The initial 80 images were produced using a simple prompt, “a nurse and a patient”. Additional images were created with prompts specifically designed to create images with a higher degree of inclusiveness and diversity. Prompt number two was: “A nurse and a patient, take equity, inclusion, and diversity into consideration”, number three was “A nurse and a patient, do not be stereotypical when creating the image” and the fourth prompt was “A nurse and a patient, adapt a norm critical perspective when creating the image”.

When using the first prompt the preliminary result shows a clear tendency towards most of the nurses being represented by a young white woman. In only three of the images was the nurse depicted as a person of non-white ethnicity. The patient in the images varied more regarding age, gender and skin color, but was represented mostly by white women as well. When using the second prompt the majority of the nurses as well as the patient was represented by women of different ages and of various skin color, but white persons were in minority and there were only a few men represented. The third prompt generated images of only white nurses and patients of different ages. Five of the nurses were male but all of the patients were women. The fourth prompt generated more variation regarding age and gender regarding the nurses as well as the patients. But there were only two of the images that presented a nurse that maybe was of non-white ethnicity.

In conclusion AI models are often trained on datasets that reflect existing societal biases. Norm criticism can help identify whether these images reinforce traditional stereotypes, such as depicting nurses primarily as women or portraying patients in ways that align with racial or gendered stereotypes.

Background

New digital learning environments have transformed medical education and training, allowing students and teachers to engage in synchronous, real-time interactions and asynchronous learning activities online. Despite extensive research on the role of digital technologies in education, understanding the interplay between digital technology, work, and learning, especially in complex fields like healthcare, remains a challenge.

Objective

The objective of this study is to examine resident physicians’ perceptions and experiences of using a digital learning environment as part of their specialist medical training. The paper focuses on digital learning through video conferencing (virtual lectures and seminars) and related learning technologies. It aims to understand how resident physicians perceive pedagogical opportunities and challenges in digital learning environments during their medical training and what strategies they use to address these.

Materials and Methods

The methodological approach is qualitative, aiming to capture and understand participants’ experiences and views of digital learning. The empirical data gathered from open-ended responses to four course evaluation surveys and semi-structured interviews with nine physicians from a cohort of participants enrolled in two or more digital courses were analyzed through thematic analysis. The analysis revealed three main themes related to digital transformation of learning: sociotechnical, educational and administrative.

Results

The results suggest that (i) sociotechnical aspects and understanding of the context in which the learning takes place contribute to enhancing digital learning for resident physicians; (ii) insights into participants’ perceptions of digital learning emphasize that interactive communication and group discussions are significant for their learning, and (iii) administrative aspects related to course design, lecture management, and instructional support are more important in digital learning environments compared to traditional teaching and learning.

Conclusion

Findings from this study confirm and extend prior studies on digital learning in healthcare, contributing to a better understanding of how digital learning environments, especially virtual lectures and seminars, can be developed and integrated into residency programs and health professions education to increase their usefulness.

The benefits of teacher-facing dashboards are incontestable, yet their evidence is finite in terms of long-term use, meaningful usability, and maturity level. Thus, this paper uses design science research and critical theory to design and develop TEADASH to support teachers in making decisions on teaching and learning. Three cycles of design science research and multiple small loops were implemented to develop the dashboard. The tool was then deployed and evaluated in real time with the authentic courses. Five courses from two Swedish universities were included in this study. The co-design with teachers is crucial to the applicability of this dashboard, while letting teachers use the tool during their courses is more important to help them to recognize the features they actually use and the tool’s usefulness for their teaching practices. TEADASH can address the prior matters, align with the learning design, and meet teachers’ needs. The technical and co-design aspects, as well as the advantages and challenges of applying TEADASH in practice, are also discussed here.

BACKGROUND: The forced transition to emergency remote teaching (ERT) during the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted health professions education worldwide. In Sweden, the need for alternative solutions for the training of junior doctors became urgent, as many of the mandatory onsite courses required for residents to qualify as specialists were canceled. The purpose of this study was to understand course leaders' perceptions and experiences of using digital technologies, such as video conferencing, to teach medical residents (ST) during the pandemic and beyond.

METHODS: A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews was conducted with seven course leaders responsible for residency courses during the first year of the pandemic to capture their perceptions and experiences. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis, drawing on the technology affordances and constraints theory (TACT) as a framework to explore pedagogical strategies and new teaching practices emerging from the forced use of digital technologies for remote teaching.

RESULTS: The data analysis revealed affordances of, as well as constraints to, teaching specialist medical training during the pandemic. The findings show that the use of digital conference technologies for ERT can both enable and inhibit social interactions, the interactive learning environment and the utilization of technological features, depending on the individual course leaders' goals of using the technology and the situated context of the teaching.

CONCLUSIONS: The study reflects the course leaders' pedagogical response to the pandemic, as remote teaching became the only way to provide residency education. Initially, the sudden shift was perceived as constraining, but over time they found new affordances through the enforced use of digital technology that helped them not only to cope with the transition but also to innovate their pedagogical methods. After a rapid, forced shift from on-site to digital courses, it is crucial to utilize experiences to create better preconditions for digital technology to facilitate learning in the future.

Through a literature review in combination with qualitative analysis of course evaluations, this study examines aspects that contribute to enhancing elearning for physicians in a residency education program. The literature review and the qualitative analysis outline three main factors (pedagogical, technological, and organizational), highlighting the importance of a holistic approach that includes learning and technology in context when integrating e-learning strategies in adult learning programs. The findings contribute insights and practical guidance for education organizers on how to conduct e-learning during and after the pandemic.

Physicians depend on access to accurate, up-to-date information and knowledge to make decisions and carry out their work. Today, access to online medical information has become easier than ever before. There is a stream of research interested in understanding how online health information intervenes and influences the patient-physician relationship. While many studies have focused on patients' online health information seeking, fewer studies have addressed how physicians seek and use online medical information. In this qualitative study, focus groups using clinical scenarios were conducted to examine why and when resident physicians turn to search engines like Google for medical information seeking at the point of care. The paper provides insights in physicians' perceptions and experiences of using digital tools for information seeking during patient consultations. Specifically, we identify and discuss information-seeking strategies of physicians during the patient consultation, contributing crucial knowledge for improving the quality of healthcare and patient outcomes.

In Sweden, like in other countries worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many education programs to a sudden and urgent switch to online teaching and learning, often without sufficient study. This was the case not only for schools and higher education butalso for continuing education and training. In this study, we exploratively examine resident physicians' perceptions and experiences of using a digital learning environment as part of their specialist medical training. The paper focuses on synchronous learning through video conferencing (virtual lectures and seminars) and addresses the following research question: What are the perceived opportunities and challenges related to digitallearning from the perspective of the course participants?

The methodological approach is qualitative, based on thematic analysis of course evaluations and semi-structured interviews. The results suggest that: i) pedagogical methods, reliable technology, and the effect of course management on learning outcomes are essential factors; ii) insightsinto participants' perceptions of learning via video conferencing emphasize that interactive communication and group discussions are significant for their learning, and iii) sociotechnical aspects were part of the elements that influenced participants'satisfaction with digital learning. Findings from this study contribute to better knowledge and understanding of how a digital learning environment in general, and learning through virtual lectures and seminars in particular, can be developed and incorporated into the programs to increase their usefulness.

Purpose

Although there is a large body of literature available on the foundations of workplace learning (WPL), little is known about designated research methods that systematically combine intervention, design and learning at work. The purpose of this study is to propose action design research as an alternative method for organizing WPL in general and facilitating pedagogically rich activities in particular.

Design/methodology/approach

This research used a case study approach to focus the action design research method and exemplify its utility through two case studies that emphasize WPL in general and how the method can be used to facilitate pedagogically rich activities in particular.

Findings

The results of the case studies indicate that the action design research method had a significantly positive effect on organizing WPL in organizations systematically, as well as creating a narrative that structures the research process and its outcomes.

Originality/value

The findings help scholars that are in need of organizing WPL research in a systematic way. The findings do also help practitioners in organizations to solve real-world problems and develop new knowledge jointly together with scholars. Consequently, the findings contribute to the existing literature by exemplifying how to facilitate pedagogically rich activities and disseminate the outcomes of doing so in a formalized way.

Continuous professional development (CPD) is an important, yet often overlooked, part of higher education. While a large body of literature exists on formal learning and e-training, aspects of self-directed and informal digital learning in CPD are still under-researched. The aim of this project was: i) to explore physicians informal learning (e.g., collegial communication, collaboration and knowledge sharing) when shifting to digital learning as part of a CPD course; ii) to identify features that enable and constrain interaction and networking; and; iii) to evaluate the effects of digital learning on the overall learning objectives and outcomes. This project was carried out in three steps, and the outcome is in a set of recommendations that can be used to capture and inform the design of future CPD programs, implemented in higher education, to better support informal learning in digital learning settings.