Faculty Bibliography

INTRODUCTION/AIMS: We designed an interactive web module to improve medical student competence in screening and interventions for hazardous drinking. We assessed its impact on performance with a standardized patient (SP) vs. traditional lecture. SETTING: First year medical school curriculum. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: The web module included pre/posttests, Flash(c), and text didactics. It centered on videos of two alcohol cases, each contrasting a novice with an experienced physician interviewer. The learner free-text critiqued each clip then reviewed expert analysis. PROGRAM EVALUATION: First year medical students conveniently assigned to voluntarily complete a web module (N = 82) or lecture (N = 81) were rated by a SP in a later alcohol case. Participation trended higher (82% vs. 72%, p < .07) among web students, with an additional 4 lecture-assigned students crossing to the web module. The web group had higher mean scores on scales of individual components of brief intervention (assessment and decisional balance) and a brief intervention composite score (1-13 pt.; 9 vs. 7.8, p < .02) and self-reported as better prepared for the SP case. CONCLUSIONS: A web module for alcohol use interview skills reached a greater proportion of voluntary learners and was associated with equivalent overall performance scores and higher brief intervention skills scores on a standardized patient encounter

Virtual Patients are computer-based simulations of a clinical encounter where the user plays the role of a healthcare provider while receiving in-context instruction. This unique pedagogical approach enables active case-based learning for learners. Academic institutions around the world have developed high-quality virtual patients using many different authoring and playback technologies. However, sustainability and scalability have proved challenging due to the number of cases needed and production costs. In an effort to promote sharing of Virtual Patients and broader adoption into medical education at all levels, MedBiquitous organized an international working group to create an XML-based 'MedBiquitous Virtual Patient Standard' (MVP) describing a common structure for virtual patient content and activities. The MVP enables virtual patient exchange across systems, modification, and display within conformant player software