An e-learning platform for clinical reasoning in cardiovascular diseases: a study reporting on learner and tutor...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education Technology
• Cardiovascular Disease Training
• Clinical Reasoning Development

Background:

• Hospital training is crucial for medical students but can be complemented by virtual patient platforms.
• Virtual patient platforms enhance clinical reasoning and learning outcomes in medical education.
• This study evaluates a web-based platform for learning clinical reasoning in cardiovascular diseases.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a web-based virtual patient platform for clinical reasoning in cardiovascular diseases.
• To detail the platform's functionalities and assess user satisfaction among medical and engineering students and professors.

Main Methods:

• The Virtual Patient platform offers clinically valid cardiovascular scenarios with stages from diagnosis to prognosis.
• Scenarios are generated automatically or manually using labeled clinical data, featuring simple and complex cases.
• 210 users (178 medical students, 7 professors, 25 engineering students) evaluated the platform over four rounds via questionnaires.

Main Results:

• 82.58% of medical students found the platform very useful, appreciating features like natural language dialogue and feedback.
• Professors valued scenario generation flexibility, real-time feedback, and data management, suggesting score explainability improvements.
• High user satisfaction was reported across different evaluation stages and scenario complexities.

Conclusions:

• The Virtual Patient platform successfully simulates hospital interactions for diagnosing and treating cardiovascular diseases.
• User evaluations confirm high satisfaction and appreciation for the platform's features and functionalities.
• Future development will expand case variety, enhance dialogue modules, and improve scenario generation and synthetic data capabilities.