Virtual patient in interactive learning environments: a review of 1989–2020 publications in selected SSCI journals

ABSTRACT

This study uses bibliometrics and social network analysis methods to investigate the characteristics of the most cited research papers in the Web of Science (WoS) database in virtual patient (VP) studies in interactive learning environments. We identify the most cited studies from the WoS database and then visualize and analyze the research data using bibliometric analysis and VOSviewer. The studies in the dataset were published in 294 different journals in 17 countries between 1989 and 2020. The highest-volume journal was found to be Medical Teacher, and the United States (US) was the country with the highest yield of published studies. The most frequent keywords were virtual patients, simulation, virtual reality, and medical education. The research results show that publishing articles in journals with high impact factors improves the quality of research. The trends in VP research further lay the foundation of bibliometrics for scholars and identify researchers, scientific journals, countries, hot topics, and relevant fields for VP literature. The most cited research uncovers new horizons in the field, providing research inspiration for investigators.

KEYWORDS:

• Bibliometric analysis
• interactive learning environments
• virtual patient
• medical
• medical teacher
• social network analysis

Acknowledgments

This study is supported in part by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan under contract numbers MOST 109-2635-H-227-001, and by the Ministry of Education under contract number PMN1090292.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministry of Education of Taiwan: [Grant Number PMN1090292]; Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan: [Grant Number MOST 109-2635-H-227-001].

Notes on contributors

Wen-Song Su

Dr. Wen-Song Su is an attending physician at the Division of Restorative Dentistry and Endodontics, Department of Dentistry, Tri-Service General Hospital, and the director of the Department of Dentistry, Taoyuan Armed Forces General Hospital as well as the Diplomate of the Academy of Endodontology, Republic of China. His research interests include mobile learning, flipped classroom, dental education, medical education, and supports innovations in medical education.

Ching-Yi Chang

Dr. Ching-Yi Chang is a PhD, RN, Assistant professor in the School of Nursing, College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University. Her research interests include mobile learning, digital game-based learning, flipped classroom and medical education, nursing education, and AI in education.