Dataset Information

Use of a Serious Game to Teach Infectious Disease Management in Medical School: Effectiveness and Transfer to a Clinical Examination.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Physicians of all specialties must be familiar with important principles of infectious diseases, but curricular time for this content is limited and clinical teaching requires considerable resources in terms of available patients and teachers. Serious games are scalable interventions that can help standardize teaching. This study assessed whether knowledge and skills acquired in a serious game translate to better performance in a clinical examination.

Methods

Fifth-year undergraduate medical students (n = 100) at Goettingen Medical School were randomized to three groups receiving different levels of exposure to virtual patients presenting with signs and symptoms of either infective endocarditis or community-acquired pneumonia in a serious game simulating an accident and emergency department. Student performance was assessed based on game logfiles and an objective standardized clinical examination (OSCE).

Results

Higher exposure to virtual patients in the serious game did not result in superior OSCE scores. However, there was good agreement between student performance in the OSCE and in game logfiles (r = 0.477, p = 0.005). An Item Response Theory analysis suggested that items from the serious game covered a wider range of ability, thus better differentiating between students within a given cohort.

Conclusion

Repeated exposure to virtual patients with infectious diseases in a serious game did not directly impact on exam performance but game logfiles might be good and resource-sparing indicators of student ability. One advantage of using serious games in medical education is standardized content, a lower inhibition threshold to learn, and a need of less staff time compared to small-group clinical teaching.

SUBMITTER: Aster A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9082676 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Use of a Serious Game to Teach Infectious Disease Management in Medical School: Effectiveness and Transfer to a Clinical Examination.

Aster Alexandra A Scheithauer Simone S Middeke Angélina Charline AC Zegota Simon S Clauberg Sigrid S Artelt Tanja T Schuelper Nikolai N Raupach Tobias T

Frontiers in medicine 20220425

<h4>Purpose</h4>Physicians of all specialties must be familiar with important principles of infectious diseases, but curricular time for this content is limited and clinical teaching requires considerable resources in terms of available patients and teachers. Serious games are scalable interventions that can help standardize teaching. This study assessed whether knowledge and skills acquired in a serious game translate to better performance in a clinical examination.<h4>Methods</h4>Fifth-year un ...[more]

PMID: 35547200

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Project description:BACKGROUND:History taking is a key component of clinical practice; however, this skill is often poorly performed by students and doctors. OBJECTIVE:The study aimed to determine whether Metaphoria, a 3D serious game (SG), is superior to another electronic medium (PDF text file) in learning the history-taking content of a single organ system (cardiac). METHODS:In 2015, a longitudinal mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) pilot study was conducted over multiple sampling time points (10 weeks) on a group of undergraduate medical students at The University of Auckland Medical School, New Zealand. Assessors involved in the study were blinded to group allocation. From an initial sample of 83, a total of 46 medical students were recruited. Participants were assigned to either a PDF group (n=19) or a game group (n=27). In total, 1 participant left the PDF group after allocation was revealed and was excluded. A total of 24 students in the game group and 14 students in the PDF group completed follow-up 7 weeks later. Using an iterative design process for over a year, with input from a variety of clinical disciplines, a cardiac history-taking game and PDF file were designed and informed by Cognitive Load Theory. Each group completed its intervention in 40 min. A total of 3 levels of Kirkpatrick training evaluation model were examined using validated questionnaires: affective (perception and satisfaction), cognitive (knowledge gains and cognitive load), and behavioral attitudes (Objective Structured Clinical Exam) as well as qualitative assessment. A priori hypotheses were formulated before data collection. RESULTS:Compared with baseline, both groups showed significant improvement in knowledge and self-efficacy longitudinally (P<.001). Apart from the game group having a statistically significant difference in terms of satisfaction (P<.001), there were no significant differences between groups in knowledge gain, self-efficacy, cognitive load, ease of use, acceptability, or objective structured clinical examination scores. However, qualitative findings indicated that the game was more engaging and enjoyable, and it served as a visual aid compared with the PDF file. CONCLUSIONS:Students favored learning through utilization of an SG with regard to cardiac history taking. This may be relevant to other areas of medicine, and this highlights the importance of innovative methods of teaching the next generation of medical students.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Physicians´ lack of knowledge contributes to underuse of insulin and poor glycemic control in adults with diabetes mellitus (DM). Traditional continuing medical education have limited efficacy, and new approaches are required. OBJECTIVE:We report the design of a trial to assess the educational efficacy of InsuOnline, a game for education of primary care physicians (PCPs). The goal of InsuOnline was to improve appropriate initiation and adjustment of insulin for the treatment of DM. InsuOnline was designed to be educationally adequate, self-motivating, and attractive. METHODS:A multidisciplinary team of endocrinologists, experts in medical education, and programmers, was assembled for the design and development of InsuOnline. Currently, we are conducting usability and playability tests, with PCPs and medical students playing the game on a desktop computer. Adjustments will be made based on these results. An unblinded randomized controlled trial with PCPs who work in the city of Londrina, Brazil, will be conducted to assess the educational validity of InsuOnline on the Web. In this trial, 64 PCPs will play InsuOnline, and 64 PCPs will undergo traditional instructional activities (lecture and group discussion). Knowledge on how to initiate and adjust insulin will be assessed by a Web-based multiple choice questionnaire, and attitudes regarding diabetes/insulin will be assessed by Diabetes Attitude Scale 3 at 3 time points-before, immediately after, and 6 months after the intervention. Subjects´ general impressions on the interventions will be assessed by a questionnaire. Software logs will be reviewed. RESULTS:To our knowledge, this is the first research with the aim of assessing the educational efficacy of a computer game for teaching PCPs about insulin therapy in DM. We describe the development criteria used for creating InsuOnline. Evaluation of the game using a randomized controlled trial design will be done in future studies. CONCLUSIONS:We demonstrated that the design and development of a game for PCPs education on insulin is possible with a multidisciplinary team. InsuOnline can be an attractive option for large-scale continuous medical education to help improving PCPs´ knowledge on insulin therapy and potentially improving DM patients´ care. TRIAL REGISTRATION:Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT01759953; http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01759953 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6Dq8Vc7a6).

Dataset Information

Use of a Serious Game to Teach Infectious Disease Management in Medical School: Effectiveness and Transfer to a Clinical Examination.

Purpose

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Use of a Serious Game to Teach Infectious Disease Management in Medical School: Effectiveness and Transfer to a Clinical Examination.

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