Local family physician creates charitable educational app to enhance the way learners are taught about family medicine

The Family Medicine Study Guide app is a collection of originally authored short answer management problems covering a variety of family medicine topics which allows the opportunity to learn and grasp key clinical concepts in Family Medicine.

Dr. Daniel Leger, assistant professor of Family Medicine at Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine, developed the app for family medicine residents, medical students, family physicians, nurse practitioners, and allied health professionals to learn about family medicine topics in a portable, rapid, and user friendly platform.

This "study buddy" was created as a portable curriculum to help motivate learning and allow users to track their studying progress throughout their training.

“The app is a compliment to the current Family Medicine curriculums,” said Dr. Leger. “As new information or concepts are acquired, users are able to amalgamate their knowledge into a single source which can be saved and used in future clinical years.”

Since its launch in January 2016, over 1500 copies have been sold worldwide.

The Family Medicine Study Guide is a non-profit project. 100 per cent of the revenue is used to ensure the sustainability of the app and donated to various charities around the world.

“We are calling this movement a “Learn & Give Back” initiative,” said Dr. Leger. “We believe that family physicians and allied health professionals strengthen our local communities, and can have an impact on those internationally as well. We also have a responsibility to assist those less fortunate and in need.”

This charitable educational project has already sponsored four families in India through the “Save a Family Plan” charity and will continue to provide donations to more families in the coming years.

“Due to the success and unexpected growth of this project, we recently partnered with “Elephant Thoughts,” which will use our donations to sponsor children in their quest for quality education in Tanzania.”

The dollars raised by this project go a long way to help families overcome poverty abroad and allow them to become self-sustainable.

“We have carefully chosen charities which ensure that 100 per cent of our donations go directly to the families and individuals in need,” said Dr. Leger. “On behalf of the charities and families we support, a heartfelt thank you to all those who have contributed and supported this charitable educational tool.”