The University of Toledo's Scribe program recognized by American Medical Association

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UT medical students Angela Johnson, native of Rochester Hills, Mich., and Juan D. Montoya, a native of Miami, Fla., present at American Medical Association conference.

TOLEDO, OH (03/09/2012)(readMedia)-- The UT College of Medicine and Life Sciences' innovative Medical Student Scribe Program was recognized at the recent 2011 AMA Medical Student and Resident/Fellow Section Joint Research Symposium with a first place award for a research poster presentation.

The poster presentation entitled, "A Scribe Program's Influence on Pre-clinical Education and Improvements in Emergency Department Physician Efficiency," received first place in the Clinical/Epidemiology/Health Care category and first place overall for poster presentations at the November 2011 meeting.

Angela Johnson, a native of Rochester Hills, Mich., and Juan D. Montoya, a native of Miami, Fla., third-year medical students at The University of Toledo who have been involved with the Scribe program since it began in 2009, presented the poster during the AMA conference. Second-year medical students Kavit Shah and Kirsten Schroeder also contributed to the poster.

Since the program's inception three years ago, medical students have been volunteering as scribes in the Emergency Department at the UT Medical Center assisting physicians by transcribing patient information for their records. The service has since expanded to other clinics and familiarizes the scribes with the electronic medical record systems used by physicians, in addition to providing the physicians with a useful service, which Johnson describes as "a bonus for everyone."

The program has grown to include more than 75 medical student scribes and additional requests for scribes from other departments at UTMC.

Johnson said the opportunity to present the Scribe program at the AMA symposium allowed the students to network with peers from other medical schools and will hopefully give more students and physicians the opportunity to benefit from the program.

"We were humbled by the win. There were many outstanding presentations from schools across the country and we feel honored to have been chosen," Johnson said.

"There were 180 presentations in a wide variety of specialties from students and residents. It was rewarding to be selected as winners because this shows us that the program has the capacity to grow and expand with time and publicity, ideally to academic hospitals across the country," Montoya said.

"It was a great learning experience. We couldn't have done this without support from Dr. Jeffrey Gold, dean of the College of Medicine and Life Sciences, and Dr. Donna Woodson and Dr. Kris Brickman, faculty mentors who have allowed for the continued success of program."

For more information about the Medical Student Scribe Program visit utoledo.edu/studentaffairs/hsc/stulif/scribes.