Using clinical history taking chatbot mobile app for clinical bedside teachings - A prospective case control study

Area of Science:

• Medical Education Technology
• Clinical Skills Training
• Digital Health Interventions

Background:

• Traditional bedside teaching for clinical history taking is a cornerstone of medical education.
• There is a need for innovative methods to supplement or enhance traditional clinical skills training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a novel chatbot mobile app for training undergraduate medical students' clinical history taking skills.
• To compare learning outcomes between chatbot-assisted training and conventional bedside teaching.

Main Methods:

• A case-control study involving 132 final-year medical students.
• Randomization into two groups: conventional bedside teaching with real patients versus chatbot-assisted bedside teaching.
• Independent, blinded assessment of students' history-taking skills using a standardized marking scheme.

Main Results:

• No significant difference in clinical history-taking skills performance between the chatbot group and the conventional group (p > 0.05).
• Baseline demographic data were comparable between the 64 students in the conventional group and 68 students in the chatbot group.

Conclusions:

• Chatbot-based training presents a feasible and effective alternative for developing clinical history-taking skills in medical students.
• This technology can supplement traditional teaching methods, potentially improving accessibility and consistency in medical training.