Virtual patients help create the med ed environment of the future

Medical students can expect virtual patients, those almost-real cases based in cyberspace, to play a larger role in learning and problem-solving as medical education evolves. Educators are looking at ways this technology can help address current issues in medical school education. A low-risk education tool “Virtual patients allow students to learn without putting real patients at risk,” said Norm Berman, MD, professor of pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and the lead author of a perspective piece recently published by the journal Academic Medicine. “No actual patients are harmed in the process of learning from virtual patients.” The authors outlined the role of virtual patients in light of challenges and opportunities facing medical education, including the rapidly expanding body of medical knowledge, the ongoing issue of diagnostic and other cognitive errors, the ability to enhance education through learning preferences, and the need for better assessment. The authors argued that virtual patients have the potential to: Deepen learning. Virtual patients can be used for interactive learning activities that help students grasp expanding medical knowledge. One strategy is to assign virtual patients to students ahead of a seminar so they can practice a particular concept on their own and then attend a seminar or a problem-based learning or team-based learning session—the “flipped classroom” model. Virtual patients with embedded l...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news