Development of an evidence-based educational resource in oncology: 'Living safely with bone metastases'.

Objective: To create an evidence-based patient education resource to better support cancer patients with bone metastases in carrying out safe movements during activities of daily living, to maintain their bone health and reduce the risk of fractures.

Methods: A quality improvement project was conducted in three phases: Development of the Resource, Preliminary Feedback and Revision, and French Canadian Translation.

Results: The educational resource focuses on safe movement, activities of daily living, and exercise, organized within the sections , and .

Virtual trauma patient simulation design using the McGill Simulation Complexity Score (MSCS): a breakthrough in trauma education.

Background: Virtual patient simulations are interactive, computer-based cases. We designed scenarios based on the McGill Simulation Complexity Score (MSCS), a previously described objective complexity score. We aimed to establish validity of the MSCS and introduce a novel learning tool in trauma education at our institution.

Creation and Pilot-testing of Virtual Patients for Learning Oncologic Emergency Management.

Purpose or objective Management of oncologic emergencies becomes critical at the start of the second year of a radiation oncology residency. Considering the limited exposure to oncology in the medical school curriculum, this knowledge gap needs to be filled prior to managing real patients. The aim of this project was to create virtual patients (VPs) to ease this transition and improve learner readiness for independently managing oncologic emergencies on call.

Objective Assessment of the Entrustable Professional Activity Handover in Undergraduate and Postgraduate Surgical Learners.

Objective: This study used a virtual patient simulation (VPS) to quantifiably and objectively assess undergraduate (UG) to postgraduate (PG) medical learners' acquisition of the entrustable professional activity (EPA) "handover," focusing particularly on the transition to residency. This EPA is critical because it is part of a core competency for UG and PG training in both the United States and Canada, and is essential for patient safety and comprehensive professional communication.

Design: Data were collected from 3 separate groups of participants: 2 UG cohorts from an earlier study, as well as a PG cohort at the beginning of residency.

Development and Validation of a Tool to Evaluate the Evolution of Clinical Reasoning in Trauma Using Virtual Patients.

Context: Undergraduate medical students at a large academic trauma center are required to manage a series of online virtual trauma patients as a mandatory exercise during their surgical rotation.

Purpose: Clinical reasoning during undergraduate medical education can be difficult to assess. The purpose of the study was to determine whether we could use components of the students' virtual patient management to measure changes in their clinical reasoning over the course of the clerkship year.

Identifying high quality medical education websites in Otolaryngology: a guide for medical students and residents.

Background: Learners often utilize online resources to supplement formalized curricula, and to appropriately support learning, these resources should be of high quality. Thus, the objectives of this study are to develop and provide validity evidence supporting an assessment tool designed to assess the quality of educational websites in Otolaryngology- Head & Neck Surgery (ORL-HNS), and identify those that could support effective web-based learning. METHODS: After a literature review, the Modified Education in Otolaryngology Website (MEOW) assessment tool was designed by a panel of experts based on a previously validated website assessment tool.

A Learner-Created Virtual Patient Curriculum for Surgical Residents: Successes and Failures.

Objective: To determine the feasibility and effectiveness of a learner-created virtual patient (VP) curriculum for postgraduate year 2 surgical residents.

Design: Using a social-constructivist model of learning, we designed a learner-created VP curriculum to help postgraduate year 2 residents prepare for their in-training surgical examination. Each resident was assigned to create a VP curriculum based on the learning objectives for this examination, and VP cases were then disseminated to all residents for completion.

Twelve tips to support the development of clinical reasoning skills using virtual patient cases.

Clinical reasoning is a critical core competency in medical education. Strategies to support the development of clinical reasoning skills have focused on methodologies used in traditional settings, including lectures, small groups, activities within Simulation Centers and the clinical arena. However, the evolving role and growing utilization of virtual patients (VPs) in undergraduate medical education; as well as an increased emphasis on blended learning, multi-modal models that include VPs in core curricula; suggest a growing requirement for strategies or guidelines that directly focus on VPs.

Improving undergraduate medical education about pain assessment and management: a qualitative descriptive study of stakeholders' perceptions.

Background: Pain is one of the most common reasons for individuals to seek medical advice, yet it remains poorly managed. One of the main reasons that poor pain management persists is the lack of adequate knowledge and skills of practicing clinicians, which stems from a perceived lack of pain education during the training of undergraduate medical students.

Objective: To identify gaps in knowledge with respect to pain management as perceived by students, patients and educators.

Developing an interprofessional care plan for an older adult woman with breast cancer: from multiple voices to a shared vision.

Interprofessional collaboration is central to quality patient care; however, little is known about developing interprofessional care plans, particularly in oncology. This article describes the development of an interprofessional care plan for an older adult woman with breast cancer. Two collaborative expert workshops were used; 15 clinical experts reviewed an online patient case and were asked to prepare a uniprofessional care plan.

Learning and caring in communities of practice: using relationships and collective learning to improve primary care for patients with multimorbidity.

We introduce a primary care practice model for caring for patients with multimorbidity. Primary care for these patients requires flexibility and ongoing coordination, and it often must be tailored to individual circumstances. Such complex and flexible care could be accomplished within communities of practice, whose participants are willing to learn from their shared practice, further each other's goals, share their stories of success and failure, and promote the continued evolution of collective learning.

12 Tips: Guidelines for authoring virtual patient cases.

Background: Virtual patient cases are an increasingly utilized and compelling pedagogical strategy for medical education informatics. They provide educators with the opportunity to develop richly layered, multidimensional teaching situations for their learners. However, 'virtual patients are notoriously difficult to author, adapt and exchange' (MedBiquitous Virtual Patient Specification, Virtual Patient Working Group 2007), and case creation can be daunting.

Learning while having fun: the use of video gaming to teach geriatric house calls to medical students.

Although most health professionals perform home visits, there is not a structured method for performing them. In addition, in-training health professionals' exposure to home visits is limited for logistical reasons. A new method for medical students to learn how to perform an effective home visit was developed using an instructional video game.

From the facts to the screen: a blended model of teaching basic hospital skills to 2nd year medical students.

We report an interactive course design which simulated the clinical setting for practicing basic hospital skills. The two-part course included (1) instructor-led, Flash-based interactive lectures; and (2) web-based case using interactive hospital forms. Our program evaluation showed that integrated sessions complemented with web-based interactive cases and hospital forms offered a better student preparation for the Geriatric Medicine clerkship and improved tutor perceptions of student performance during early rotations in the academic year.

New directions in medical e-curricula and the use of digital repositories.

Medical educators involved in the growth of multimedia-enhanced e-curricula are increasingly aware of the need for digital repositories to catalogue, store and ensure access to learning objects that are integrated within their online material. The experience at the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University during initial development of a mainstream electronic curriculum reflects this growing recognition that repositories can facilitate the development of a more comprehensive as well as effective electronic curricula. Also, digital repositories can help to ensure efficient utilization of resources through the use, re-use, and reprocessing of multimedia learning, addressing the potential for collaboration among repositories and increasing available material exponentially.

Development of an undergraduate medical curriculum: the McGill experience.

In 1997 the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University received a grant from the Molson Foundation. The primary project deliverable, which the authors describe, was an online, multimedia-enhanced, undergraduate medical curriculum. The decision to develop an electronic curriculum was predicated on the belief that the integration of educational technology within mainstream material delivered a "value added" component to both students and faculty, which would, in turn, facilitate teaching and learning.