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We're trying something new... · Medical Students Making an App - Episode 1

2017-07-26 · Vlog or day in the life · Ali, Ben · recording, 3:56 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Business and entrepreneurship (also: Medicine and his doctor years) · mode: Announcement and promotion · tags: His own products discussed, Aimed at students

On their medical elective in Cambodia, fifth-year Cambridge medical students Ali and Ben announce a simple iOS and Android app for medical students to log the operations they assist in, and say they will document building it on video.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Introductions; why medical students keep a surgical logbook and why a spreadsheet is a chore

  • ★★ Ali and Ben, fifth-year Cambridge medical students on their medical elective in Cambodia, have just come up with an idea for an app they are going to make. — 00:00:00 · Ben, University of Cambridge, Cambodia
  • ★★ Because everyone on the elective says they wish they had written down the surgeries they had done, Ali has tried to fill in an Excel spreadsheet every day in Cambodia to record all the surgeries they have been able to do. — 00:00:00 · Cambodia, Microsoft Excel
  • ★★ Surgical societies commonly advise medical students interested in surgery to keep a list of the operations they see or assist in, as a record. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ A printed list of the operations a medical student has assisted in can go into the portfolio for job applications, so those assists do not go to waste. — 00:00:46
  • ★★ One problem with keeping a surgical logbook is that students must first know to keep one: Ali got that advice only halfway through fifth year. — 00:00:46
  • ★★ Even students who know to keep a surgical logbook find filling in the spreadsheet at home a pain; the Google Sheets phone app, which a few of them use, is not an easy input system. — 00:00:46
  • ★★ A surgical logbook with all the columns already set up would let students just enter the details and be done quickly, without wondering what to include. — 00:01:15

00:01:44 — The planned app; documenting the build on video; Ben's and Ali's experience

  • ★★★ Ali and Ben will make a simple iOS and Android app, connected to a back-end database, that stores the details of the operations a medical student has assisted in. — 00:01:44 · Cut and Paste
  • ★★ In the planned surgical logbook app, the student enters a random patient identifier and the supervisor's name after an operation, and the app records the date, time and hospital automatically. — 00:01:44 · Cut and Paste
  • ★★ Ali and Ben plan to document the process of building their surgical logbook app in videos. — 00:01:44
  • ★★ Ali says many medical students are interested in med tech and making apps but do not know where to start, and many want to learn to code but do not know how to take something from idea to product. — 00:02:14
  • ★★ Ben says he has learned a lot about building a website since arriving in Cambodia and sees the app as a chance to learn how starting a new project works. — 00:02:14 · Cambodia
  • ★★ Ali has coded a few websites before but has never made an iOS or Android app, so building one will be a learning point for him. — 00:02:43

00:03:12 — A name and website to come; email sign-up

  • ★★ Ali and Ben have not yet found a name for their surgical logbook app and say they will make another video about it. — 00:03:12
  • ★★ Once the surgical logbook app has a name and website, viewers can leave their email address there and will be emailed when the app is done. — 00:03:12
  • ★★ Ali hopes the surgical logbook app may become something very useful, and says that either way they will learn something. (hedged) — 00:03:12

In the description and comments

  • ★★ Ali and Ben, two relative beginners, plan to build an app for medical students over the next few weeks and share their process as they go. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Ben · Cut and Paste

Also: Cambodia · Microsoft Excel · University of Cambridge

Only in the description or credits: Medical Students Making an App

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