ENRICHING VIRTUAL PATIENTS WITH INTERACTIVE IMAGES

Background: At the University of Heidelberg and Maastricht University, virtual patients are primarily used for training clinical reasoning. Adapting virtual patients for undergraduate students has included the realisation of new features for embedding applied knowledge besides the already existing knowledge questions. Methods: The literature related to interactive images was analysed and scenarios of the usage for various interactive image types were evaluated against the background of virtual patients. A template-based and easy-to-use animation editor was implemented to develop interactive images that were made available to undergraduate medical students. Using such interactive images can help students learning basic facts and fundamental concepts more effi ciently. Actually, there are different types of interactive images available, e.g. mouse-over or drag-and-drop labelling images. These interactive images are realized in Adobe Flash and can either be used stand-alone or integrated as media fi les in CAMPUS virtual patients. The latter has the advantage of combining pre-clinical with clinical knowledge and providing students a consistent interface to E-Learning content during their whole study. In a different scenario, the CAMPUS Animation Editor can be made available to the students to create their own interactive images and deepen their medical knowledge. Results: Currently, selected interactive images are used within virtual patients in an undergraduate course. While working through the virtual patient the students can take part in a survey for focus group analysing. Until now, the students are presented a standardized questionnaire for virtual patients containing only general questions about the strengths and weaknesses of the virtual patients and the used virtual patient system. Individual statements by students indicate the usefulness of interactive images especially for self-study. A questionnaire concentrating on the interactive images is planned for spring 2009. Conclusion: Interactive images are a valid tool for applied knowledge transfer. However, an easy-to-use editor for each interactive image type is required to lower the creation barrier.