Planning a Collection of Virtual Patients to Train Clinical Reasoning: A Blueprint Representative of the European Population

Anja Mayer, Vital Da Silva Domingues, Inga Hege, Andrzej A. Kononowicz, Marcos Larrosa, Begoña Martínez-Jarreta, Daloha Rodriguez-Molina, Bernardo Sousa-Pinto, Małgorzata Sudacka and Luc Morin
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Anja Mayer: Medical Education Sciences, University of Augsburg, 86159 Augsburg, Germany
Vital Da Silva Domingues: School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Porto, 4050-513 Porto, Portugal
Inga Hege: Medical Education Sciences, University of Augsburg, 86159 Augsburg, Germany
Andrzej A. Kononowicz: Department of Bioinformatics and Telemedicine, Jagiellonian University Medical College, 30-688 Krakow, Poland
Marcos Larrosa: Aragón Health Research Institute (IIS-Aragón), University of Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Begoña Martínez-Jarreta: Aragón Health Research Institute (IIS-Aragón), University of Zaragoza, 50009 Zaragoza, Spain
Daloha Rodriguez-Molina: Institute and Clinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, University Hospital, LMU Munich, 80336 Munich, Germany
Bernardo Sousa-Pinto: MEDCIDS—Department of Community Medicine, Information and Health Decision Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, 4200-319 Porto, Portugal
Małgorzata Sudacka: Department of Medical Education, Jagiellonian University Medical College, 30-688 Krakow, Poland
Luc Morin: Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, DMU 3 Santé de L’enfant et de L’adolescent, APHP Paris Saclay, Bicêtre Hospital, 94270 Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, France

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 10, 1-15

Abstract: Background: Virtual patients (VPs) are a suitable method for students to train their clinical reasoning abilities. We describe a process of developing a blueprint for a diverse and realistic VP collection (prior to VP creation) that facilitates deliberate practice of clinical reasoning and meets educational requirements of medical schools. Methods: An international and interdisciplinary partnership of five European countries developed a blueprint for a collection of 200 VPs in four steps: (1) Defining the criteria (e.g., key symptoms, age, sex) and categorizing them into disease-, patient-, encounter- and learner-related, (2) Identifying data sources for assessing the representativeness of the collection, (3) Populating the blueprint, and (4) Refining and reaching consensus. Results: The blueprint is publicly available and covers 29 key symptoms and 176 final diagnoses including the most prevalent medical conditions in Europe. Moreover, our analyses showed that the blueprint appears to be representative of the European population. Conclusions: The development of the blueprint required a stepwise approach, which can be replicated for the creation of other VP or case collections. We consider the blueprint an appropriate starting point for the actual creation of the VPs, but constant updating and refining is needed.

Keywords: clinical reasoning; medical education; international collaboration; virtual patients; case-based learning; open educational resources (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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