This work proposes to expose and provide feedback to medical students on abnormal clinical conditions through the use of immersive virtual patients (VPs). Immersive VPs are highly interactive, computer-generated, life-size virtual 3D characters. As medical educators have difficulty in providing students with sufficient experiences with abnormal clinical conditions, testing students using patients with abnormal findings has been difficult to plan. VPs can fill this critical education need for interactive exposure.
The aim i s to use a VP system to provide students with interactions and feedback in scenarios involving abnormal clinical findings. The dynamic attribute of VPs provides significant benefits in presenting abnormal conditions. The goal is to establish the use of VPs as a powerful addition to SPs and physical simulators in the medical education curriculum.
Aim #1 - Develop a proof-of-concept set of virtual patients with blurred vision to expose medical students to abnormal findings. We propose creating a set of three experiences of a virtual patient with blurred vision. The blurred vision will be caused by one of the following: 1) An injury to one of the cranial nerves, 2) diabetic retinal disease, or 3) cranial mass (brain tumor). All conditions begin with a similar starting interview. But as the interview progresses, the student needs to employ careful visual observation and interactive exams. Blurred vision is difficult to reproduce with standardized patients and has no existing mannequin or physical simulators.
Aim #2 - Develop a system capable of providing feedback to medical students on their knowledge of abnormal findings. The system will evaluate the student's interaction with the blurred vision virtual patient. The system will then provide feedback to the student on their conduct of the patient-doctor interaction. The feedback will focus on the interview, eye-exam, observation of key symptoms, and differential diagnosis.
Aim #3 - Pilot-test the integration of abnormal findings virtual patients into the education curriculum. We propose to integrate the resulting system into the medical education curriculum. At the University of Florida, 3rd year medical students in their surgical rotation will be exposed to the blurred vision virtual patient. After covering blurred vision conditions in lectures, students would experience a virtual patient presenting one of three blurred vision conditions.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Library of Medicine (NLM)
Type
Small Research Grants (R03)
Project #
5R03LM009646-02
Application #
7678040
Study Section
Biomedical Library and Informatics Review Committee (BLR)
Program Officer
Sim, Hua-Chuan
Project Start
2008-08-15
Project End
2010-08-14
Budget Start
2009-08-15
Budget End
2010-08-14
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$73,250
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Florida
Department
Engineering (All Types)
Type
Schools of Engineering
DUNS #
969663814
City
Gainesville
State
FL
Country
United States
Zip Code
32611
Rivera-Gutierrez, Diego; Welch, Greg; Lincoln, Peter et al. (2012) Shader Lamps Virtual Patients: the physical manifestation of virtual patients. Stud Health Technol Inform 173:372-8