The Solution

Adding Osmosis to the student library, giving students and faculty access to its comprehensive medical education platform.

A student first approached the librarians at Touro about their desire for access to Osmosis. At the same time, Dr. Junsanto-Bahri, the Chair of Basic Biomedical Sciences and Course Director of Pathology, was using Osmosis in her classes and was passionate about furthering Osmosis use across the program. After a demo of the platform and hearing about its strong foundation in learning science principles, Ms. Altonen and Ms. Santos also became enthusiastic champions because of the quality, features, and level of support services from Osmosis.

One of the primary motivations for getting Osmosis was its reliability, says Ms. Altonen. “It’s the attention to detail in the product and that they’re constantly updating and improving.”

Osmosis consistently meets the students’ needs by not only providing well-produced videos, but also access to additional features like flashcards and question banks. The multiple layers of interactivity are beneficial for reinforcing student learning. It also helps students with different learning preferences.

One of the most utilized features is the study scheduler, which saves students time. “Some students come in and comment on the fact that they’re a little more comfortable. I think it takes some of the stress off the students, and I’ve seen that they’ve actually commented on that,” says Ms. Altonen.

Ms. Altonen also appreciates the relevant and timely communication from the Osmosis team. Her dedicated Osmosis account manager consistently communicates about new features and is always available to help when anything is needed. This level of support is accessible to everyone using Osmosis, from the account managers working with university staff, to the customer experience team who are available to help at the click of a button on the Osmosis site.

Osmosis further supports Ms. Altonen’s efforts to promote the Osmosis platform directly to faculty and students. Ms. Altonen presents Osmosis to students during orientation and highlights its features and the platform through update emails and by wearing her Osmosis swag. “We promote you guys; the emails that my account manager Jill sends, if they’re relevant, I forward them on whether it’s faculty or staff. And she’s always willing to do workshops with us.”

The Challenge

Providing quality and useful resources that students enjoy using.
Students need to absorb a vast amount of information in a short time to become clinicians. Consequently, health profession programs involve challenging coursework that pushes students to learn more efficiently and effectively. At Touro University, the librarians are always asking how they can offer resources that best support student and faculty needs, from learning to teaching.

There are so many options for medical education resources. The challenge is finding and curating the best resources, those that are reliable and help students understand and retain medical information.

The subsequent challenge is around increasing awareness about available resources among faculty and students. “You do have to do a few clicks to find our resources. We can’t put everything on the homepage, that would look like chaos,” Ms. Altonen explains. Having a company willing to partner with librarians to help them promote available resources is valuable.

The Result

Positive student reviews, facilitating introductions to Osmosis teammates to help faculty get the most out of their subscription, and expanded use across Touro programs.

Osmosis is one of the most frequently utilized resources provided to students by the Touro medical library. ”[When we] see students studying watching videos, [Osmosis is] probably the one we’re always seeing open and being used,” reports Ms. Altonen. And it receives some of the best student reviews. “When we get asked about board review it’s on the top of the list because so many of the students like it. All the feedback we get is positive.”

Its popularity has also grown among faculty thanks to the strong work from its librarians facilitating connections between Osmosis teammates and Touro faculty. Osmosis is now integrated into a prematriculation program that gives students a foundation before starting medical school. Osmosis videos have also been integrated into the DO program’s genetics curriculum and are used in courses throughout the pre-clerkship curriculum.

Touro’s happiness with and experience using Osmosis led Ms. Altonen to include Osmosis as a recommended resource for Touro sister campuses, including the new PA program in California and new DO program in Montana. Deep faculty engagement from the pharmacy program has also led to interest in expanding use in the NY podiatry program as a core curricular resource.

When deciding to buy new resources, the librarians at Touro evaluate both the financial costs and usefulness. Ms. Altonen says they evaluate “usefulness to the students, usefulness to the faculty. And I would say Osmosis is definitely the bar we use…If it’s not as useful as Osmosis then what’s the point?”