Repurposing Existing Virtual Patients; an

Anglo-German Case Study

By Chara Balasubramaniam, Jonathan Round, Sophie Vaughan, Terry Poulton, Trupti Bakrania, Benjamin

Hanebeck and Soeren Huwendiek E-Learning Unit, Centre for Medical and Healthcare Education

and the Center for Virtual Patients in Heidelberg

REViP

Repurposing Existing Virtual Patients

•Small One Year case study (Mar 2008 to Feb 2009)•Supported by the JISC RePRODUCE Programme

To develop, run and quality assure technology enhanced courses using reused and repurposed

learning materials sourced externally to the institution

REViP Aims

1. Repurpose 8 Paediatric virtual patients (VPs) from Germany to UK.

2. Embed repurposed VPs within a refreshed SGUL module.

3. Evaluate impact of the resources.

4. Share repurposed VPs with wider community.

What is a Virtual Patient?

“an interactive computer simulation of real-life clinical scenarios for the purpose of medical training, education, or assessment”

Ref: An architectural model for MedBiquitous virtual patients by R Ellaway, C Candler, P Greene, V Smothers (2006)

I just killedthe patient!

Repurposing Workflow

Translate linear system German VP to English

1

Test branched system English VP7

Clear any IPR issues6

Identify content to enrich VP5

Storyboard and create additional pathways for branching scenario

4

Adapt VP text for English culture3

Export VP text to MS Word/HTML2

End User Perspectives

•Project Team•Students

Project Team Lessons Learned

• Repurposing existing content from one culture to another is efficient

• Repurposing from one VP structure to another is less efficient

• Repurposing VPs must have an educational purpose and fit

Project Team Views

The key challenges were :• Mapping proposed resources to the curriculum

• Sourcing and recording patient/actor consent

• Choosing an appropriate licensing model

• Capturing and responding to staff and student feedback

• Attracting external reviewers willing to evaluate resources

• Planning appropriate exit and sustainability models

• Documenting the lessons learned and disseminating

Student Views

Overall feedback from students was in favour of VPs.• Focus group (n=3) – Quick and easy-to-use in a safe

environment, and available anytime, anyplace

• Survey 1 (n=12) – 90% of students reported that resources were a worthwhile learning experience

• Survey 2 (n=25) – 88% of students reported that VPs were an effective way to learn knowledge about disease

• Survey 2 (n=25) – 75% of students reported that VPs were an effective way to learn clinical reasoning skills

“...makes learning a bit more interesting, rather than just learning from a textbook. It’s always more helpful going in and seeing cases, and this is a way to do that when there isn’t a patient, or when you just want to sit

in bed with your laptop”

Conclusions

If it’s in a book – most students prefer to use the book

If you can’t get it from a book – students will really value it

You can’t ‘take decisions, and explore consequences’ – in a book

www.elu.sgul.ac.uk/revip(including final report)

Thank You

chara@sgul.ac.uk