“Just as video killed the radio star – a few years from now we will all be saying the internet killed the textbook!”

Thank you to the College of Paramedics for inviting me to speak, and thanks to any of you who were there to listen. The presentation was part of the education stream and was written to discuss some of the work we have done but also to lay down a challenge for others to get involved, and I hope you do!

The argument that I made was that our patients are becoming increasingly complex with multiple medical conditions, there are also a range of new drugs continue to be developed and even topics as well established as sepsis have had their definitions changed. This means that you and I have to work hard to keep up to date.

The ability to access up to date information and learning on the go means that classical textbooks are starting to lose pace with current developments. Not to mention you need to have the correct book in your library to be able to access it, otherwise you are off to a library or bookshop.

In contrast to this the internet presents the ability to access a wide array of resources that can be kept updated and are also responsive to feedback which can be given instantaneously.

Part of the work that #EM3 have been doing is to map #FOAMed resources to the RCEM curriculum (see the 'Courses' section of our website). We have presented this work as a poster at SMACC and the RCEM scientific conference.

If we look at the Paediatric Sub Speciality curriculum we have been able to map 411 resources from 31 unique websites to the 24 modules. These include written resources (blog posts) which were the most common, as well as podcasts, videos and other eLearning.

This covered the majority of the curriculum, however some areas such as obstetrics and gynaecology were harder to cover. On top of this once we looked at were the gaps were it is possible to start filling them with further content.

It is this ability to generate further content that forms the basis of a challenge that I laid down to my audience. It is time for you to get involved. This doesn't have to mean producing large volumes of detailed content, but can be as simple as a #PostitPearls. All you need to do is write down a short note on a post it, take a picture and put it on Twitter. It can be something new, or just something interesting.

So I leave you all with this challenge… come join us, get producing your own resources and join the conversation. Please feel free to follow us on Twitter and we would love to see what you produce!