The current modules focus on breathing mechanics, static conditions, and obstructive and restrictive disease states.
Tutorials are linear presentations of concepts with questions interspersed. Illustrations and animations are used to reinforce the ideas. For example, the Quiet Breathing Tutorial builds up a triple animation, linking a breathing thorax, a gauge of pressure changes, and a graph of volume changes.
Labs are interactive work areas that encourage students to compare and contrast scenarios, adjust model parameters, and see results. The Disease States Lab encourages students to compare spirogram tracings, compliance curves, and expiratory flow rates for normal, obstructive, and restrictive pulmonary diseases. Students may use a question bank to focus their exploration. The Statics Lab enables students to specify a patient's lung volume and glottis state. The resulting lung and chest-wall recoil pressures are depicted using illustrations, graphs and equations.
The Quiz module contains questions covering all topics within the respiratory physiology course. Each multiple choice question provides remediation for correct and incorrect answers. The non-scored quiz format encourages students to seek answers by using the integrated on-line support.
Support information includes a hypertext-accessed dictionary and encyclopedia. The dictionary gives brief definitions of concepts and symbols. The encyclopedia uses illustrations, animations and video to go into greater depth in a topic area. It is divided into four categories: Anatomy, Physics, Pulmonary Function Tests, and Disease Process.
Interactive Respiratory Physiology is currently being used as an integral part of the curriculum at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
For useful medical websites http://mdbooksonline.blogspot.com/
