PharmaMemory: an interactive, animated web application for learning autonomic physiology and pharmacology.

Intro Medical students face challenging but important topics they must learn in short periods of time such as autonomic pharmacology. Autonomic pharmacology is difficult in that it requires students to synthesize detailed anatomy, physiology, clinical skills, and pharmacology. The subject poses a challenge to learn as it is often introduced early in the medical school curriculum. Methods To ease the difficulty of learning autonomic pharmacology, we created a free web application, PharmaMemory (www.pharmamemory.com) that interactively depicts the effects of high-yield autonomic drugs on the human body. PharmaMemory provides users with the opportunity to read about and quiz themselves on the mechanisms, side effects, indications, and contraindications of these drugs while interacting with the application. We provided PharmaMemory to first-year medical students for 2 consecutive years of quality improvement and assessed the application's perceived effects on learning via user surveys. Results Survey feedback showed users viewed PharmaMemory favorably and self-reported increased understanding, knowledge, and confidence in the subject of autonomic pharmacology. Comments were largely positive or constructive. Discussion PharmaMemory utilizes challenged recall, visual stimulation, and interactive learning to provide users with a multifaceted learning tool. Preliminary data suggest that students find this method of learning beneficial. Further studies are needed to assess PharmaMemory compared to more traditional learning methods such as PowerPoint or text-based learning. Additionally, further research is needed to quantitatively assess reduction in cognitive load.