Virtual Patients with RulesVirtual Patients with Rules

Can adding rules to virtual patients enhance deliberate practice to optimize performance?

Tufts University

What are the attributes of aWhat are the attributes of aTUSK VP ?TUSK VP ?

Linear Global Displays the student’s path through global vp’s Associates costs with options selected provides cost

summary Form-based authoring tool Provides a printable summary of the VP for students Flexible… it multi-tasks Administrator tools to populate with default normal data

according to patient types …ever growing in functionality e.g RULES at the request

of faculty

Tufts University

In Support of Mannequin In Support of Mannequin SimulationSimulation

Tufts University

Reinforce Knowledge:Reinforce Knowledge:StatisticsStatistics

Tufts University

Clinical Reasoning Courses in Clinical Reasoning Courses in Veterinary and Medical SchoolsVeterinary and Medical Schools

Tufts University

Clinical Decision Making and Clinical Decision Making and knowledge reinforcer: Geneticsknowledge reinforcer: Genetics

Tufts University

VP: Problem Based LearningVP: Problem Based Learning

The ProblemsThe ProblemsSome Students found they could

click through and get to the end without “thinking”

Doctors have to work in an imperfect world – test results don’t come back the minute you submit the paper work… what do you do while you are waiting?

The decision to move forward without enough information shouldn’t be rewarded

Tufts University

“I would want to see more genetics cases posted on TUSK. It was one thing to learn about modern clinical genetics procedures, but it was infinitely more interesting to see how they would be applied to actual cases (i.e. which tests are useful in which situations, what results might give you a positive diagnosis or might just allow you to rule one possibility out, etc.) “

“I was confused about when I gave the right answer or not. Or how "right" my answers were”

“I thought it was a good study tool. It was good practice for analyzing, incorporated a lot of the lecture material - making it feel very relevant - and it did all of this without adding to much pressure. It was good practice without being penalized for getting answers wrong. I definitely think you should continue to use this in the future.”

Tufts University

Tufts University

✓ Consultants expect the student to have already identified items of concern.

✓ Consultants expect students to come with specific questions to ask?

Tufts University

Opportunities for the Opportunities for the futurefutureWe may need to ask the VP

working group for some modifications to the spec◦Triggers on elements◦Rules on elements

Do rules make a difference in virtual patients?

Tufts University