Using Online Simulation of Pediatric Musculoskeletal Cases to Evaluate How Knowledge of Costs Affects Diagnostic Workup.

Background: Rising healthcare costs have emphasized the need to teach cost-conscious care in graduate medical education.

Objective: To teach high-value care and diagnostic evaluation of pediatric musculoskeletal complaints to residents and rotating medical students through online cases.

Methods: Six online cases were developed and tested at the University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center.

CREATING A SERIOUS GAME FOR HEALTH.

The prevalence of chronic illnesses continues to increase as does the cost of such care. Teaching self-management skills is more effective than solely providing information and teaching technical skills at improving health outcomes. Serious games for health provide an opportunity to support learning and health-related behavior change using messages and experiences in an engaging and entertaining format.

Avatar-based depression self-management technology: promising approach to improve depressive symptoms among young adults.

Major depressive disorder is prevalent among American young adults and predisposes young adults to serious impairments in psychosocial functioning. Without intervention, young adults with depressive symptoms are at high risk for worsening of depressive symptoms and developing major depressive disorder. Young adults are not routinely taught effective depression self management skills to reduce depressive symptoms and preempt future illness.

Virtual reality distraction for pain control during periodontal scaling and root planing procedures.

Background: Although pain management during periodontal treatment usually is achieved with anesthesia, alternative methods are available. The authors conducted a study to evaluate the analgesic effect of immersive virtual reality (VR) during periodontal scaling and root planing (SRP) procedures.

Methods: The authors recruited 38 patients.