CyberPatient TM —An Innovative Approach to Medical Education

Abstract

Background: Variety of tools has been used to teach history-taking skills to novice learners. Standardized Patient (SP) is the gold standard for medical education. We hypothesized that the use of online simulation platforms Cy-berPatient™ (CP) is as effective as SP. Methods: In this prospective random-ized controlled trial study, the educational effectiveness of CP was compared to SP in improving history taking skills. Twenty-two incoming students at University of British Columbia (UBC) were randomly divided in to two (SP and CP) groups. SP Group (n = 11) practiced their history taking skills with the standardized patients and CP Group (n = 11)-with CyberPatients. The content for both groups included 3 cases of GI pathology and the study time was 60 minutes. Assessment method included Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) before and after interventions. Data were analysed in a two-way between/within ANOVA and Wald test was used to deal with the violation of the ANOVA assumptions. Economic benefits were assessed as Cost-effectiveness (calculated as Cost/Effect Ratio) and Cost-Value Proposition (Cost-Vale Relationship). Results: Results of this study indicated that both groups had significant (SP group p = 0.006 and CP group p = 0.0001) improvement in the knowledge domain of history taking. The history taking knowledge variable in both groups manifested a significant main effect of time indicating that students did better after interventions, F (1, 15.1) = 10.5, p = 0.011. The groups performed at a similar level after intervention. Moreover , results show that the use of the CP is more cost-effective and has a better cost/value proposition for medical education. Conclusion: We conclude that CyberPatient™ is as effective as using standardized patients in delivery of practical knowledge for novice medical students, however, CyberPatient™ is more economically rewarding.