Building a virtual patient commons

Abstract

Virtual patients as a form of educational intervention can take many forms and can provide highly effective ways of addressing reduced student access to real patients, the need for standardised and well-structured educational patient encounters, and opportunities for students to practice in safe and responsive environments. However, virtual patients can also be complicated and costly to develop. As a result collaborative and distributed development is best suited to their widespread take up.

This paper considers the development and use of virtual patients and the steps that have been taken to support authors in making this approach more sustainable and adaptable. In particular, this has involved the development of a common data interoperability standard, which in turn has engaged a number of communities that have developed, or are developing, virtual patient commons, consisting of shared resources, tools and knowledge for mutual benefit. The paper illustrates how innovative and otherwise difficult to sustain models for supporting and extending healthcare education, such as virtual patients, can be supported using a commons approach with commonly agreed data standards and specifications at their core.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rachel Ellaway

RACHEL ELLAWAY, Ph.D. is Assistant Dean and Associate Professor Education Informatics at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. She is also a Visiting Professor for Education Informatics at St. George's, University of London, UK and co-Chair of the MedBiquitous Virtual Patient Working Group.

Terry Poulton

TERRY POULTON, Ph.D. is Associate Dean for E-learning and Educational Technology at St. George's, University of London, UK.

Uno Fors

UNO FORS, Ph.D., DDS, is Professor in Medical Educational Simulation and Chairman of the Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics (LIME) at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.

James B. McGee

JB MCGEE, MD is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh in the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, and Assistant Dean for Medical Education Technology at the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He is also co-Chair of the MedBiquitous Virtual Patient Working Group.

Susan Albright

SUSAN ALBRIGHT is Director of TUSK at Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.