gms | German Medical Science

Introduction: It's one of the set goals of the curriculum that students are qualified to conduct the basics of a clinical ENT-examination an describe the medical findings by themselves. Difficulties are the rather special methods of examination and the inter-individualisticly varying anatomy. In the established examination course at the beginning of the semester the students learn the basic clinical examintaion on each other under professinal supervision. However, limited time and the lack of a possibility to visually recapitulate the course contents are disadvantageus.

Method: A modular designed set of high quality commented teaching-videos complements the seminar and offers the students an opportunity for recapitulation and propaedeutics of the clinical ENT-examination in an indiviuallally assesable, time- and space-independant online application.

Result: Analogous to the 5 anatomical examination areas five modules plus one introductional module were created inbetween which students can move around at their indivudual speed. To date 25 commented videos between 1/2 and 2 1/2 minutes lenght are available in which an ENT specialist demonstrates the examination while animations and pop-ups explicate instruments and anatomy. Special features are amongst others multi-angle view and live fade-ins to describe the clinical findings.

Conclusion: With the implementation of the virtual examination course as a voluntary additional offer tot he existing curriculum we believe to have created a surplus for the students by combining the advantages of an multimedia-based online self-teaching application with established class-room teaching to provide a new high-quality method for propaedeutics and recapitulation.