I love working with learners of all backgrounds who are interested in clinical parasitology, vector-borne diseases, and the pathology of infectious diseases. While I serve in several formal education leadership roles, my favorite way of interacting with learners is in small groups and one-on-one. I also enjoy educating through social media and my blog “Creepy Dreadful Wonderful Parasites”.
How did you get interested in medical education?
I’ve always loved teaching, regardless of the subject area. I also seemed to have a knack for it, which encouraged me to continue to improve my teaching skills. When I found my passion in microbiology and pathology, it was an obvious next step to devote a good portion of my career to educating others in these areas.
What strategies have you used to transform your medical education work into scholarship?
I’ve been very interested in studying the use of social media for reaching diverse audiences around the world, and have published my experience with blogging to deliver parasitology education. I also routinely include a few slides on using social media for education in talks I give on parasitic diseases, with the goal of inspiring the next generation of bloggers!
What are some of the most rewarding aspects of a career in medical education?
What I find most rewarding by far is the connections I make with my learners. My educational sessions are filled with robust discussions, laughter, and sometimes even philosophical musings.
What are some challenges you’ve encountered as an educator and how have you overcome these challenges?
Probably the biggest challenge I face as an educator is effectively teaching learners with vastly different levels of pre-existing knowledge in the study area. For example, my monthly unknown slide sessions on infectious diseases pathology are attended by MD microbiology fellows, PhD Microbiology fellows, pathology residents, and ID fellows. The pathology-trained individuals are quite proficient at histopathology, whereas most of my PhD fellows have little to no training in this area, and the ID fellows often don’t remember most of their histopathology training from medical school! Therefore, my solution is to be very clear on what the goals are for each learner group, and then provide material at all proficiency levels so that there are takeaways for everyone. I make sure to emphasize multiple times throughout each session on how a particular entity may present to each learner group, and what challenges they may specifically face.
Another challenge I face is that parasitology is filled with complex names, terms and morphologic descriptions that can be difficult to learn. To overcome this, I make ample use of learning aids, including visualizations, diagrams, and hand-drawn pictures. I love to draw on a whiteboard while teaching – either a traditional board or – more recently - on the Zoom whiteboard. I also have a whole ‘host’ of silly rhymes, mnemonics, and stories that I use. For example, you can differentiate the microfilariae of *Loa loa* from the other sheathed microfilariae because their nuclei ‘flow-a flow-a” to the tip of their tail.
Tell us about the creation of your blog on parasitology and how it is used for teaching.
I created my blog in 2007 as a way to share interesting cases with friends and colleagues. I was completing my MSc in Medical Parasitology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine at the time, and I wanted to be able to show the amazing cases I was seeing to people back at Mayo Clinic. However, I quickly had others ask to be added to my email distribution list, and my audience just grew from there. I really expanded my reach when I started posting my cases on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and the ASTMH clinical groups listserv. I’m humbled that each post now receives tens of thousands of hits each month from viewers around the world – something that wouldn’t be possible without the amplifying power of social media.
What are some of the unique approaches you’ve utilized for teaching microbiology?
I love getting creative when teaching, and the subject matter in parasitology really lends itself to this. My typical lecture is interactive, case-based, and full of videos (with viewer discretion warnings). For my laboratory sessions, I always include live displays in addition to the typical microscopy displays and jars of worms and bugs. My typical teaching lab includes adult ticks (submitted to my lab for identification), mosquito larvae (locally harvested), and medicinal leeches (from our hospital pharmacy). Recently, I’ve started using the free teaching materials from the NIH-NIAID Filariasis Research Regent Resource Center, including blood with live microfilariae, and mosquito eggs that will hatch in under 30 minutes. I also like to show a cod fillet containing an anisakid worm (dissected from fish purchased at a local grocery store). Finally, I have a whole range of parasite displays I like to include that are made out of plastic, fabric (e.g., stuffed parasite toys), and even some resin ones I made myself. These are now readily available commercially and add a bit of fun to the lab.
What advice do you have for someone who is starting a career in medical education?
I encourage new educators to be flexible and try new things; watch what others do and try out techniques that seem to be particularly effective. I also tell people to look around them while they are teaching to make sure that their audience is still with them, and that they are delivering the right message to their learners. If someone looks lost, then it’s time to rephrase the message or reinforce the main points. I also recommend being active on social media, where there are many outstanding educators and eager students to interact with.
What other innovative educational program or process are you most excited about currently?
I’ve really enjoyed using whole-slide digital images in my teaching recently, as it allows me to ‘drive’ around the slide for the audience as if I was viewing it under my microscope. It’s more interactive than simply playing a video, since I’m actively driving the slide with my mouse while teaching. For example, here is an impressive case of cysticercosis involving an eye.