gms | German Medical Science

Questions: At the University of Heidelberg, virtual patients are primarily used for training clinical reasoning in higher terms using the CAMPUS virtual patient system [1]. Survey results however indicate that students demand a more consequent use of virtual patients during their whole medical study. The challenge for the creation of virtual patients for undergraduate students was to introduce clinical knowledge (patient related teaching) but also to integrate a high amount of applied knowledge. Especially the latter is not an easy task because applied knowledge from different medical areas like anatomy, biology, chemistry, histology and physiology has to be treated. So adapting virtual patients for undergraduate students has included the realisation of new features for embedding applied knowledge besides the already existing knowledge questions. One possibility to encourage student interest and to help them understand basic concepts is the inclusion of multimedia content, e.g. interactive images.

Methods: The literature related to interactive images was analysed and scenarios of the usage for various interactive image types were evaluated against the background of virtual patients. A template-based and easy-to-use animation editor was implemented to develop interactive images (see Figure 1 [Fig. 1]) that were made available to undergraduate medical students. Using such interactive images can help students learning basic facts and fundamental concepts more efficiently. Actually, there are different types of interactive images available, e.g. mouse-over or drag–and-drop labelling images [2]. These interactive images are realized in Adobe Flash and can either be used stand-alone or integrated as media files in CAMPUS virtual patients. The latter has the advantage of combining pre-clinical with clinical knowledge and providing students a consistent interface to E-Learning content during their whole study. In a different scenario, the CAMPUS Animation Editor (see Figure 2 [Fig. 2]) can be made available to the students to create their own interactive images and deepen their medical knowledge.

Results: Currently, selected interactive images are used within virtual patients in an undergraduate course. While working through the virtual patient the students can take part in a survey for focus group analysing. Until now, the students are presented a standardized questionnaire for virtual patients containing only general questions about the strengths and weaknesses of the virtual patients and the used virtual patient system. Individual statements by students indicate the usefulness of interactive images especially for self-study. A questionnaire concentrating on the interactive images is planned for spring 2009.

Conclusion: Interactive images are a valid tool for applied knowledge transfer. Using the CAMPUS Animation Editor interactive images can be easily developed and produced, even by the physicians or students themselves.