The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, 2010/01, 110(1):42-43. doi: 10.7556/jaoa.2010.110.1.24, type of study: ,css,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Full text    (https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7556/jaoa.2010.110.1.24/html)

Keywords:

cross sectional study [894]
osteopathic medicine [2108]
physician-patient relations [104]
virtual learning [17]
USA [1751]

Abstract:

Background: In recent years, there have been numerous innovations and developments with web-based virtual patient (VP) simulations. Despite improvements to these learning tools, VP simulations are still limited by a labor intensive and highly technical development process, lack of a common platform, and an inability to mimic human-to-human conversational fluidity. A team of developers at the University of Florida have built a software platform (Virtual People Factory, VPF) that implements a uniquely designed conversational technology (Human-centered Distributed Conversational Modeling, HDCM) that addresses the fore mentioned issues. Using this software, we have created a web-based interactive clinical scenario that enlists users for rapid and robust script development. Our goal is to demonstrate that an encounter with the VPF software will be found to have an educational value and increase medical student preparedness for actual standardized patient encounters. Methods: Forty-six second year medical students at Georgia Campus–Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (GA-PCOM) used VPF to interact with a VP complaining of a suspicious headache, general malaise, fever, and nuchal rigidity. Following a brief online tutorial of the platform, students were directed to the VPF via a web link where students accessed the clinical vignette. Students were allowed to obtain an H&P, request lab results, and other diagnostic tests. The testing was a two-fold process. First, script errors were identified by the users and quickly corrected by a script editor. Upon completion users received performance feedback and completed a survey regarding the educational value of the application. Results: Of the students in the test group, 63.27% found educational value in the VPF (rating >3), 71.43% found the system to be easy to use (rating >3), 26.53% found the virtual patient to simulate a real-life interaction (rating >3), 79.59% found the program to be beneficial in their preparation for the live standardized patient encounter (rating = yes), 91.84 % would like to have the virtual patient technology available for future training purposes (rating = yes). Conclusions: Implementation of a user-friendly virtual patient encounter was shown to be educationally valuable and to complement student-patient interaction. VPF provides an alternative for students to learn history-taking and physical examination skills. Immediate and objective performance feedback from the system provides students the opportunity to improve their performance in conducting a patient interview and familiarize themselves with the H&P process. The interaction allows the user to identify any problems with recognizing classic signs and symptoms of specific diagnoses. Future testing of the VPF can be targeted at monitoring the academic performance of students that use the VPF tool prior to a live SP encounter.