---
title: The FOAM revolution – Michael Baker | PAC 2013
description: The Free Online Medical Eduation - FOAM - revolution by Michael Baker, from the APLS Paediatric Acute Care Conference, 2013.
---

[PAC on Demand | APLS Australia ](https://www.apls.org.au/pac-on-demand)

# [The FOAM revolution – Michael Baker | PAC 2013](https://www.apls.org.au/pac-on-demand/the-foam-revolution)

 Written by [Sample HubSpot User](https://www.apls.org.au/pac-on-demand/author/sample-hubspot-user) | Sep 6, 2020 4:35:34 AM

[The FOAM revolution – Michael Baker | PAC 2013](https://vimeo.com/138265660) from [APLS Australia](https://vimeo.com/aplsaustralia) on [Vimeo](https://vimeo.com).

 

Dr Michael Baker from Life in the Fast Lane discusses online medical resources and the concept of FOAM – Free Open Access Medical education.

**Speaker biography:**

Michael is a paediatric and adult emergency physician, currently dividing his time between Princess Margaret and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital emergency departments in Perth, Western Australia. He completed his emergency training with a sub-specialty in paediatric emergency medicine after a fantastic fellowship year at Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. Now back in Perth, he is a busy father of three who, in addition to his day job, enjoys moonlighting for ‘VIP Medicine’ as a paediatric doctor for visiting VIP’s children. He has been a member of the ‘Life In The Fast Lane’ team since 2011, consulting on all things pertaining to paediatric emergency medicine, and is passionate about online medical education.

**Key points:**  
• FOAM is Free Open Access Medical education.  
• It encourages participants to engage in the cycle of knowledge.  
• FOAM is excellent for motivated learners, and provides asynchronous learning.  
• One of the goals of FOAM is to break down knowledge silos.  
• FOAM inherently blurs the lines between teachers & learners.  
• Dr Baker gives a nice worked example, with mention of a number of FOAM sites (including Pediatric EM Morsels, St Emlyn’s, The NNT).  
• One of the strengths of FOAM is the ability for rapid feedback; something that conventional publishers are adopting.  
• There are some good questions at the end of the lecture about how to appraise the reliability and trustworthiness of FOAM content.  
• FOAM needs to be read in combination with the source literature.

From the 2013 APLS Paediatric Acute Care Conference in Noosa, Australia.

[View full post](https://www.apls.org.au/pac-on-demand/the-foam-revolution)

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