Project Objectives

To develop “longitudinal story” type Virtual Patients for the medical course, primarily in the area of anaesthesia and perioperative care, and implement them into the medical curriculum.

Description of process and deliverables

The project started early 2007. We found creating virtual patients much more time consuming than originally planned. A 6 chapter, 162 web-pages, 344 illustrations, (57 interactive) and 29 questions with answers perioperative case was written and developed using focused group interviews. The final “Anaesthesia Virtual Patient” was a self-learning website that taught perioperative care to future doctors. It was delivered using a modification of our existing FACS (Formative Assessment Case Studies) system. It was introduced into the final year anaesthesia module in summer 2008.

Evaluation of outcomes

Feedback from questionnaires showed that our virtual patient is well accepted by our students, and takes 3-6 hour to complete.

Dissemination of results & deliverables

A short report on the virtual patient was published in Medical Education (Critchley. 2008:42:1120). The work has been presented at a number of international conferences (Krakow, Poland; Nanning China) and Faculty workshops. Collaboration with St. Georges University, London, and the European eViP project is planned to share our virtual patient with other medical schools.