Virtual patient design: exploring what works and why. A grounded theory study.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Virtual patients (VPs) are online representations of clinical cases used in medical education. Widely adopted, they are well placed to teach clinical reasoning skills. International technology standards mean VPs can be created, shared and repurposed between institutions. A systematic review has highlighted the lack of evidence to support which of the numerous VP designs may be effective, and why. We set out to research the influence of VP design on medical undergraduates.

Methods

This is a grounded theory study into the influence of VP design on undergraduate medical students. Following a review of the literature and publicly available VP cases, we identified important design properties. We integrated them into two substantial VPs produced for this research. Using

SUBMITTER: Bateman J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3677415 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature