Simulation and other forms of digital learning will occupy a place of increasing prominence in medical education in the future. However, to maximally use the potential of these media, we must go beyond a research agenda dictated by a 'Does it work?' question to one driven by careful analysis of the nature of the task to be learned and its relation to the characteristics of the technology. Secon...

Traditionally, age research has flowed in the three streams of the biological, the medical and the social sciences. The three traditions differ most obviously in the questions they ask, but there are also conceptual and epistemological divergences. The significance of 'theory' differs between the social and biomedical sciences as does the emphasis on qualitative and quantitative methods. Often ...

expanding challenge for many health systems, including the NHS. It can be defined as the coexistence of several chronic diseases or medical conditions in one person. It is increasingly common among older people, as effective interventions reduce fatal events but increase the prevalent disease population, and life expectancy of the general population continues to rise. As a result, multimorbidit...

Over the past five years, the emergence of interactive social media has influenced the development of learning environments. Learning management systems have come to maturity, but because they are controlled by educational institutions and are subsequently used to support institutional learning, have been seen by learning technologists as not capturing the spirit and possibilities that new medi...

Millions of bacteria make our bodies their home. They help keep us healthy, and disruptions in the normal micro biota are believed to contribute to a number of diseases. Cost-effective sequencing technologies have made it possible to sequence the genomes of human-associated microbial communities, leading to the birth of a new scientific discipline metagenomics. Analyzing the resulting data, how...

One of the privileges and responsibilities accorded to Specialty Chief Editors in the Frontiers journals, at the commencement of new specialty sections, is to provide an overview of potential research directions for the specialization in the form of a challenge statement. There is, however, a tight restriction on this prerogative: specifically, a limit of 2000 words. For the very practical and ...

Ecosystems and their biodiversity have to be protected and preserved as sources of services and goods. The human population controls and modifies ecosystems to improve its health conditions and welfare. The consequences of human activities should be carefully monitored and ecosystems should be managed to protect all of the species and preserve their functioning. The development of strategies fo...

INTRODUCTION Climate change has been at the forefront of environmental concerns for over a quarter of a century. The sequence of reports published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 1990, 1996, 2001, 2007, 2013) has been instrumental in bringing climate issues to the attention of the public and policy-makers alike. In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and D...