Case-Informed Learning in Medical Education: A Call for Ontological Fidelity.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Philosophy of Medicine
• Pedagogical Approaches

Background:

• Case-informed learning, encompassing approaches like Problem-Based and Case-Based learning, utilizes text-based cases for education.
• Current cases often reflect positivist orientations, prioritizing scientific knowledge and objective facts, which can exclude the human experience of medicine.
• While cases simulate real-world practice, fidelity issues from simulation literature are underexplored in case-informed learning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and explore the concept of ontological fidelity in medical education.
• To address the absence of narrative and experiential elements in traditional medical cases.
• To provide practical suggestions for creating cases that incorporate ontological fidelity.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual exploration of ontological fidelity as a framework for case development.
• Analysis of traditional case-based learning through a philosophical lens.
• Discussion of how ontological fidelity can guide the selection of content for medical cases.

Main Results:

• Proposes ontological fidelity as a method to re-center medical cases on narrative and experiential aspects.
• Highlights the need to question what constitutes 'real' within a case simulation.
• Suggests that ontological fidelity encourages a deeper consideration of whose reality is represented in educational cases.

Conclusions:

• Adopting ontological fidelity can enrich case-informed learning by integrating the human dimension of medicine.
• Medical educators can use ontological fidelity to critically evaluate and enhance the realism and relevance of educational cases.
• This approach offers a philosophical tool to improve the design and impact of medical case simulations.