Use of interactive video in teaching history-taking to medical students: a pilot project

Abstract

The traditional method of teaching history-taking by instruction and demonstration suffers from the disadvantage that students are mostly passive learners and do not get involved in processing cues and asking supplementary questions. Audio- and video-cassettes can spread the coaching of good teachers, but do not involve students in the process of making decisions. Interactive video, combining the use of video and computer, can involve students in the process of pursuing cues and making diagnoses. The interactive system acts as a tutor in teaching history-taking and ‘asks’ and ‘answers’ questions at various stages of the medical interview. In this pilot study we assessed students’ responses by means of a questionnaire to an interactive video, on a history taken by an experienced physician from a patient with ischaemic cardiomyopathy. Students were shown short strips and then asked to key in their answers. Of the 41 students who took part, 71 per cent thought they had learnt something new, 44 per cent thought that the time could not have been better spent in reading a book on the same topic, and 50 per cent considered their time could not have been better spent looking at the traditional video on the subject. Asked how they found the session, 49 per cent considered it enjoyable and 78 per cent wished to use a system like this if more video programmes were available. Problems such as the need to type in correctly spelt answers and the slow recall of the videostrips can be overcome by inserting a wider range of search words in the program and cutting down the length of the sequences. We conclude that an interactive video system involves students in learning actively and can be used to transmit clinical skills.