i-Human Patients, a Silicon Valley-based developer of cloud software for medical education, is partnering with the American Medical Association (AMA) to improve and digitise teaching medical students. The goal of the partnership is to provide medical students with the most effective educational tools and to improve outcomes in the long term.
i-Human uses a computer-animated patient to cultivate diagnostic reasoning skills. The concept is similar to a flight simulator for pilots, but this tool is for medical students and practicing clinicians. The animated tool will replicate the clinical diagnostic reasoning process and will enable students to recognise symptoms, perform physical exams and interpret results. It is hoped that this form of teaching tool will lead to fewer misdiagnoses and reduce unnecessary and costly testing by future physicians.
According to Norm Wu, CEO of IHP, “i-Human offers students a more thorough understanding of physical exams by developing their diagnostic reasoning in a clinical context. With one in 20 U.S. adult outpatients misdiagnosed every year, there's an opportunity to reimagine medical education to better prepare future doctors for real-world patient encounters.”
This collaboration is part of AMA's Accelerating Change in Medical Education initiative. AMA is partnering with different medical schools and national organisations to develop innovative ways to educate and train medical students and to better prepare them for the future practice of medicine. Several universities will be taking part in this collaboration, including George Washington University School of Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine at the Texas Tech Health University Sciences Center.
A major challenge for medical students is finding an avenue where they can apply the discrete skills they learn in the classroom. This includes the actual practical application of their skills in a clinical setting, and determining how and when to perform focused history and physical examinations. With this new tool from i-Human, the nine expert US medical educators will provide a new and effective mode of learning.
Medical students also find it difficult to determine which exams to perform, how to perform them and how to interpret the findings. The approach offered by i-Human could help address this gap and offers a significant shift from rote exercise to a simulation that reflects real clinical practice.
According to Jim Madara, MD, CEO and Executive Vice President of the AMA, "The AMA has been leading innovation in medical education through its strategic initiative to accelerate change in medical education, and the i-Human Patients platform for physician training complements our ongoing efforts.”
Sources: iHuman.com and Medcity News.
Image Credit: iHuman.com
