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. 2020 Jun 3;1(2):87-100.
doi: 10.34197/ats-scholar.2020-0014PS.

A Short History of Free Open Access Medical Education. The Past, Present, and Future

Teresa M Chan  1   2 , Christine Stehman  3 , Michael Gottlieb  4 , Brent Thoma  5
Affiliations

A Short History of Free Open Access Medical Education. The Past, Present, and Future

Teresa M Chan et al. ATS Sch. .

Abstract

Free Open Access Medical education (FOAM) has taken the emergency medicine and critical care worlds by storm in the past decade. This article represents one perspective on the stages of transition for FOAM from its humble beginnings as a grassroots movement to the more recent multiauthor blogs that are described in the peer-reviewed literature. In this article, the authors describe the following four distinct waves of people within the movement, with each wave creating a new stage in the evolution of the FOAM community: Creation by the Founders, Adoption by the Enthusiasts, Structure and Formalization by the Structuralists, and Engagement and Activity by the End Users. The authors contextualize some of the phenomena that have been observed within this field and highlight challenges for the field moving forward.

Keywords: Free Open Access Medical education (FOAM); medical education; online education; social media.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The overlapping stages of the development of Free Open Access Medical education.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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