ABSTRACT
The developments in targeted therapies and molecular pathology have changed the classification of tumors and precision oncology. Pathologists and clinical scientists in molecular pathology and oncologists have regular multidisciplinary meetings and are responsible for translating molecular results into an appropriate treatment plan. This requires expertise and skills to be effective team players. Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is essential for professionals in medicine; however, learning opportunities in current resident training are limited. This narrative study explores the collaborative output and learning mechanisms of interprofessional learning (IPL) of residents of different disciplines in the Morphology & MolecularPLUS workshop and its preparation. Topics that were discussed in the workshop were technologies for the detection of mutations, copy number variations, tumor mutational burden, and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) analysis in the context of differential diagnosis and precision oncology. Data were collected by analyzing pre- and post-workshop questionnaires and interviews. An interprofessional team of three residents of each hospital had to be formed by one of the residents, which was challenging as not all residents from a hospital knew each other. Residents reported to have got to know each other and have learned about each other's roles and perspectives. They gained knowledge of molecular pathology and the added value of IPC, in particular, for residents early in their training. Enabling meetings for medical residents of different disciplines to get acquainted was perceived as the most facilitating factor for IPL. Time constraints as the biggest barrier in daily practice. We recommend offering IPL activities as early as possible in residency programs.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Medical students often lack training in complex geriatric medical decision making. We therefore developed the serious game, GeriatriX, for training medical decision making with weighing patient preferences, and appropriateness and costs of medical care. We hypothesized that education with GeriatriX would improve the ability to deal with geriatric decision making and also increase cost consciousness. DESIGN: A randomized, controlled pre-post measurement design. PARTICIPANTS: Fifth-year medical students. INTERVENTION: Playing the serious game GeriatriX as an additive to usual geriatric education. MEASUREMENTS: We evaluated the effects of playing GeriatriX on self-perceived knowledge of geriatric themes and the self-perceived competence of weighing patient preferences, appropriateness, and costs of medical care in geriatric decision making. Cost consciousness was evaluated with a postmeasurement to estimate costs of different diagnostic tests. RESULTS: There was a large positive increase in the self-perceived competence of weighing patient preferences, appropriateness, and costs of medical care in the intervention group (n = 71) (effect sizes of 0.7, 1.0, and 1.2, respectively), which was significantly better for the last 2 aspects than in the control group (n = 63). The intervention group performed better on cost consciousness. Although the self-perceived knowledge increased substantially on some geriatric topics, this improvement was not different between the intervention and control groups. CONCLUSIONS: After playing the serious game, GeriatriX, medical students have a higher self-perceived competence in weighing patient preferences, appropriateness, and costs of medical care in complex geriatric medical decision making. Playing GeriatriX also resulted in better cost consciousness. We therefore encourage wider use of GeriatriX to teach geriatrics in medical curricula and its further research on educational and health care outcomes.
