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Microbe 4.0
Microbe is a multimedia education tool for use in "The Infectious Basis of Disease" (M&I201) at the Stanford University School of Medicine. More than 150 infectious organisms and 50 syndromes are covered in addition to a self-testing facility with 40 clinical case scenarios. The program has been developed at Summit, Stanford University. Faculty authorship includes Drs. Stanley Falkow, Robert Siegel, Paul Basch, and Karen Smith, as well as medical students and other Fellows from the Department of Infectious Disease. The software is targeted at the preclinical medical student, although the subject material is also appropriate for people reviewing for board exams.
The program is divided into three main sections: syndromes, organisms, and clinical cases. Each section has a body of text, as well as images that are presented in a thumbnail format. Pictures can be expanded to high resolution, full-screen size to show more detail. All text material supports hyperlinking analogous to the World Wide Web, which allows people to jump from one syndrome to another syndrome, from a syndrome to a particular organism, and from a syndrome or microorganism to a relevant clinical case, or vice versa. This rich cross-linking of information provides some of the context that is important in learning infectious disease. In addition, the syndrome and microorganism sections have context menus, which allow for rapid navigation through the program. Syndromes have a list of all other syndromes that occur in the same organ system, as well as a differential for that particular syndrome. Microorganisms have a list of all the syndromes they are involved in, as well as a differential for each of these syndromes. Both lists are hyperlinked, which allows users to navigate between syndromes and microorganisms very rapidly.
Clinical cases are provided for self-testing purposes. Multiple choice questions have single or multiple answers, and are designed to teach the process of diagnosing and treating an infectious disease. Choices are also hyperlinked, which allows users to jump from the clinical case to reference information for review purposes. Users can then return to the same spot in the clinical case where they left off. Choices also have feedback associated with them, so that in the event of an incorrect answer, the user is provided with information as to why their choice was incorrect.
In keeping with Stanford's curricular flexibility, the course provides a minimum foundation in concepts and principles of nutrition and dietetics, that can be individually expanded by giving the students the option to pursue links to material in existing Stanford courses, links to relevant external web sites, and lists of additional learning resources. A key component of the design is that the course can be completed entirely in self-study mode.
Microbe 4.0, the last version, was made available for the first time in the fall of 1997 to students of M&I 201. The original version of Microbe was developed in 1991 by Stan Falkow and Michael Tomasson. If you are interested in obtaining Microbe for use at another institution, please contact Dr. Parvati Dev, Director of Summit.
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