Mission Statement 2005
Our quest for knowledge is consuming. We are consumed with the process of its acquisition, its organization, and its dissemination.
Knowledge is the critical tool for problem solving. Problem solving with clarity, accuracy, and efficiency hinges on the process of knowledge acquisition. Hyperbolic advances in communication and data transfer speeds now provide an opportunity to reevaluate the fundamentals of knowledge acquisition and influence this process of problem solving.
Medicine is the logical target discipline for this project. The goals or problems to be solved are often clear. The needed tools to solve the problem are available in the immense database of knowledge. And yet, because the database is so broad and disconnected the task of data acquisition grows more cumbersome and discouraging. The data is present in a spectrum of formats and levels of complexity. The user is challenged with the task of gathering, sorting, and storing this information. The tools to manage this process of problem solving are now insufficient because their evolution has not kept pace with the evolution of our science. The success of the DAVE project has demonstrated the importance of a new strategy in the science of knowledge management. The differences in the challenges of teaching a medical student at the patient's bedside in a major metropolitan university hospital and the training of an HIV health care worker in some remote village on a distant continent have quite rapidly and unexpectedly vanished. We solve the problem for one and we have solved it for the other.
The DAVE Project approaches the basic constructs of knowledge acquisition with the following hypothesis; by seeking novel solutions but using current technologies to streamline the process of learning, we can significantly alter the efficiency and effectiveness of our problem solving efforts. DAVE is the logical progression of future learning technology and may in a single stroke revolutionize this knowledge quest for both our metropolitan medical student and our remote HIV field worker.
Mission Statement 2003
Gastroenterology and Endoscopy
Over the past 20 years, innovations in technology have dramatically changed the field of gastrointestinal endoscopy. The evolution from fiberoptic to video chip hardware has both improved image resolution and provided a new viewing format. The result has broadly influenced both the practice and teaching of endoscopy. The experienced endoscopist can now recognize the subtle mucosal detail of the sawtoothed pattern of gluten-sensitive enteropathy, or the irregular surface of a colonic polyp signifying malignant degeneration. The digital video format has conferred many teaching advantages over its fiberoptic predecessor. As a result, the quality of images used in journals and educational materials has radically improved.
Perhaps the greatest potential impact of this advancement, however, has been on the quality of the video clip. Endoscopy is a visual field and endoscopic imaging creates a rich text of senses aside from color and detail. As we maneuver an endoscope around a finding, we can sense its firmness, mobility, and three-dimensional configuration. The video clip, as opposed to the static image, captures the true essence of endoscopy. Yet, despite the clear advantage of the video clip over the static image, its use remains under exploited. Until recently, video clips have been expensive and time consuming to generate. The software required to project them has been limited and the lines to transmit them globally are not yet in widespread use. We view these limitations as temporary and thus have endeavored to expand the use of video clips as a teaching tool. Our goal now is to complete a library of gastrointestinal endoscopic video clips using the full spectrum endoscopic imaging supported by pathologic, radiologic, and surgical images. Physicians will be able to submit, for consideration, new entries to enrich and expand the atlas. The web page's design will be intuitive and cross linked for easy navigation.
