Application of virtual patient in the reexamination of professional master degree of clinical medicine / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Objective:To explore the application of virtual patient in the reexamination of clinical medical professional masters (hereinafter referred to as "clinical masters"), and to provide reference for the reform of clinical masters reexamination.Methods:The correlation between the clinical thinking scores of 97 candidates (Western medicine) in the reexamination of clinical masters in a university in 2019, the scores of comprehensive ability of clinical medicine (Western medicine) in the initial test and the interview scores in the reexamination was analyzed, and the differences between the clinical thinking scores of current and previous candidates were compared. SPSS 21.0 software was conducted for t test, chi-square test and Pearson correlation analysis. Results:The Person correlation analysis showed that the correlation coefficient between the scores of clinical thinking and the scores of comprehensive clinical medicine (Western medicine) and the scores of interview in the reexamination were 0.09 and -0.05 respectively( P>0.05). At the same time, there was no statistically significant difference between the clinical thinking scores of current and previous candidates ( P >0.05). Conclusion:There was a poor correlation between the scores of clinical thinking and the scores of comprehensive clinical medicine (Western medicine) and the scores of interview in the reexamination. The consideration is concerned with the difference in the purpose of the three assessment forms. It can provide references for other medical colleges to optimize the evaluation content of postgraduate reexamination.

Using virtual patient to assess primary health workers / 中南大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVES@#Primary health workers are the first fine to identify postpartum depression, which is important for patients with this disease to get early specialist diagnosis and treatment. The smartphone-based virtual patient is economical, convenient and effective, and has been applied extensively to evaluate the competency to detect postpartum depression, but there is no relevant application in China. This study aims to use virtual patient to assess the current status on the competency of detecting postpartum depression among primary maternal and child health workers in Hunan Province, and to explore potential influencing factors.@*METHODS@#A total of 222 primary maternal and child health workers from 3 regions with low, medium, and high economic levels in Hunan Province were enrolled, and smartphone-based virtual patients with postpartum depression were used for the assessment from May to July in 2018, and a self-designed questionnaire was used to investigate their demographic characteristics. The competency to detect postpartum depression was measured by 2 indicators: diagnostic accuracy and treatment accuracy. Descriptive statistical methods were used to describe the competency to detect postpartum depression among them and their demographic characteristics. A logistic regression analysis was used to explore the possible influencing factors for the diagnostic accuracy and treatment accuracy.@*RESULTS@#The diagnostic accuracy rate was 64.0%. There was no significant difference between the demographic characteristics and diagnostic accuracy rate (@*CONCLUSIONS@#About half of the primary maternal and child health workers in Hunan Province, China have basic competency to detect postpartum depression, but the overall results are not satisfactory. The regional economic level is correlated with the competency of detecting postpartum depression, and the competency of detecting postpartum depression is stronger in more developed areas. Moreover, for the patients who have been identified as postpartum depression, the rate of correct treatment is low, which warrants particular attention in the follow-up training.

The virtual asthma guideline e-learning program: learning effectiveness and user satisfaction

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Effective educational tools are important for increasing adherence to asthma guidelines and clinical improvement of asthma patients. We developed a computer-based interactive education program for asthma guideline named the Virtual Learning Center for Asthma Management (VLCAM). We evaluated the usefulness of program in terms of its effects on user awareness of asthma guideline and level of satisfaction. METHODS: Physicians-in-training at tertiary hospitals in Korea were enrolled in a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. The e-learning program on asthma guideline was conducted over a 2-week period. We investigated changes in the awareness of asthma guideline using 35-item self-administered questionnaire aiming at assessing physicians' knowledge, attitude, and practice. Satisfaction with the program was scored on 4-point Likert scales. RESULTS: A total of 158 physicians-in-training at six tertiary hospitals completed the survey. Compared with baseline, the overall awareness obtained from the scores of knowledge, attitude, and practice was improved significantly. Participants were satisfied with the VLCAM program in the following aspects: helpfulness, convenience, motivation, effectiveness, physicians' confidence, improvement of asthma management, and willingness to recommend. All items in user satisfaction questionnaires received high scores over 3 points. Moreover, the problem-based learning with a virtual patient received the highest user satisfaction among all parts of the program. CONCLUSIONS: Our computer-based e-learning program is useful for improving awareness of asthma management. It could improve adherence to asthma guidelines and enhance the quality of asthma care.

Desarrollo de una Interfaz Visual del Metabolismo de Glucosa Basada en Modelos Matemáticos Compartimentales / Development of a Visual Interface of Glucose Metabolism Based on Compartment Mathematical Models

RESUMEN La diabetes es una pandemia mundial cuya incidencia ha aumentado en las últimas décadas. Por tal motivo, es prioritario proponer estrategias para su diagnóstico, tratamiento y seguimiento. Uno de los enfoques recientes en el tratamiento de la diabetes es el monitoreo continuo, el cual permite tener suficiente información sobre el estado metabólico del paciente a lo largo del día. Esta información puede servir para simular pacientes virtuales que sean herramientas para proponer estrategias de tratamiento. Por tanto, el objetivo de esta investigación es proponer una interfaz visual que simule pacientes virtuales, a partir de un conjunto de modelos matemáticos compartimentales que permiten ingresar parámetros del metabolismo y modificaciones en el tratamiento. El desarrollo de la interfaz se realizó en MATLAB® y simula tres tipos de pacientes (sano, diabético tipo I y diabético tipo II). Los resultados muestran una interfaz que presenta de manera ilustrativa el funcionamiento de los modelos matemáticos y permite una visualización del estado metabólico del paciente; así como el manejo de medicamentos e ingesta. Una limitante de esta investigación es la validación de la interfaz con datos experimentales de los tres tipos de pacientes. Una vez validada, esta herramienta aportaría en el desarrollo de tecnología in silico para la generación de pacientes virtuales.

ABSTRACT Diabetes is a pandemic disease whose incident rate has been rising in the last decades. Therefore, it is important to propose strategies for its diagnosis, treatment and monitoring. One of the recent approaches on diabetes treatment is the continuous monitoring, which provides enough information about the metabolic state of the patient throughout the day. This information can be used to simulate virtual patients which are useful tools in treatment strategies. Thus, the objective of this research is to propose a visual interface to simulate virtual patients, this is based on compartmental mathematical models considering changes in metabolic parameters and treatment modifications. The interface was made in MATLAB® and simulates three kinds of patients (healthy, type I diabetic, type II diabetic). The results show an interface that presents the functionality of the mathematical models in an illustrative way and it allows the visualization of the metabolic state of the patient; as well as the medication usage and meal intake. A limitation of this approach is the validation of the interface with experimental data of the three kinds of patients. Once it was validated, this tool could contribute to the development of in silico technology to generate virtual patients.

Pilot use and assessment of a virtual patient system-PUMC-DxR Clinician system / 基础医学与临床

Objective The aim of this study is to explore the application of virtual patient system in medical educa-tion in China .Methods Forty-one medical students were recruited to take part in a 5-week pilot use of PUMC-DxR Clinician system , and to finish ten virtual cases totally .At the end of the pilot use , all students were required to complete a survey about PUMC-DxR Clinician system.Results General assessment scored 3.71 ±0.72,novel-ty scored 4.66 ±0.62 ,usability scored 3.51 ±0.87 ,practicality scored 4.00 ±0.87 ,and all of them were over 3 points.According to the survey, 95.1% students agreed that this kind of virtual patient system was suitable for clerkship, intern, or junior resident, and 80.5%students agreed that it was suitable to teaching.Conclusions PUMC DxR Clinician system shows good practicality and usability in this pilot use , whose value is mainly based on the training of clinical reasoning .

The application of virtual patient in gynecology and obstetrics clinical teaching / 中华医学教育探索杂志

Gynecology and obstetrics is a theoretical and practical subject. It is an important goal for the medical students to develop the clinical thinking ability and operating skills and apply them in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. To overcome the limited teaching resources, the rare clinical skills opportunities caused by doctor-patient relationship tension, virtual patient (VP) combined with clinical teaching was applied in clinical teaching, which can reproduce the real, and bring the students to the role of the clinician , enrich the content of the obstetrics and Gynecology clinical teaching. Along with the reform the teaching faculty with high quality was established, their clinical teaching experiences and innovative thinking were improved significantly. The results were evaluated by means of clinical comprehensive ability test. The present study aimed to establish virtual patients of OBGYN (virtual patient, VP) learning to promote learning of basic knowledge, clinic skills, and thinking ability.