Virtual Patient for education in academic Periodontology

Sammanfattning: Computer assisted learning (CAL) is used in several medical and dental schools throughout the world. Lately, virtual learning environments (VLE) have been developed and especially simulators, which have become an important educational tool in the training of practical skills. A systematic literature review was conducted, in order to investigate the state of the art within CAL in dental and medical education. Furthermore, a design and usability test as well as one randomised controlled trial were undertaken, in attempt to investigate the effects of training on a virtual patient for the development of skills in history taking. Although research on CAL in the early 1990s demonstrated very positive results, recent and more carefully controlled experiments suggest a positive, but more cautious approach. It was concluded that CAL may supplement and reinforce more traditional learning and create opportunities to illustrate clinical situations in an interactive way. CAL has the potential to help students develop skills and knowledge. The utility test on the virtual patient demonstrated that such a software application, totally based on free text communication, can achieve an acceptable level of function for teaching purposes. Furthermore, the students’ abilities to perform a history taking of real patients improved significantly after one training session with the virtual patient. The students trained with the virtual patient asked a larger number and more relevant questions, showed more empathy towards the patient and performed a more complete history interview in comparison to the control students. In conclusion, the use of CAL/Virtual patients may enhance education and provide learning opportunities that cannot be taught by traditional strategies in realistic settings. At present, CAL/Virtual patients in academic learning should be used as a supplement to the traditional education.