Media Credit: Photo Illustration by Samuel Klein | Photo Editor

Medical students, following in the footsteps of doctors across the country, will use iPads as part of a new curriculum next year.

Next years new GW medical students will have made it through one of the most selective admissions processes in the country. But theyll each get a bonus: a new iPad.

The School of Medicine and Health Sciences will distribute iPads to its about 180-student first-year class for the first time next fall, joining a host of medical schools that are investing in a tool that is becoming more prevalent for doctors around the country.

Theyll get their white coats and their iPads and theyll be new GW medical students, said Jeffrey Akman, dean of the medical school, at a recent Faculty Senate meeting.

The iPads will complement a new curriculum that cuts down on basic science classes taken in the first two years to get students into the clinics and hospitals more rapidly, Akman said. The school will also reduce lecture time and stress team-based learning.

Its about continuing to emphasize areas as we look toward what a physician of next generation should look like in terms of training, he added.

Purchasing iPads for each member of the first-year class could rack up to nearly $70,000, but Bernhard Wiedermann, a professor of pediatrics who is leading the curriculum revision, said the school will likely receive an educational discount. She added that the school plans to cover the cost with money from school's academic fundraising White Coat Initiative.

Howard Lee, a fourth-year student, said the iPads are a good investment for budding doctors. He bought one in his second year because it seemed more practical for note taking, textbooks and filing information on patients.

You can do two things at once, so sometimes if youre listening to an audio recording of your lecture you can look at your notes at the same time, Lee said, adding that he sometimes watches videos of procedures before heading to class.

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Medical school to arm students with iPads