Defining the next generation journal: The NLM-Elsevier interactive publications experiment.

Objective: A unique collaborative project to identify interactive enhancements to conventional-print journal articles, and to evaluate their contribution to readers' learning and satisfaction.

Hypothesis: It was hypothesized that (a) the enhanced article would yield more knowledge acquisition than the original article; (b) the interactivity aspects of the enhanced article would measurably contribute to the acquisition of knowledge; and (c) the enhancements to the original article would increase reader acceptance.

Methods: Fifteen SNMA medical students, assumed to have a greater generational familiarity and comfort level with interactive electronic media, reviewed 12 articles published in three Elsevier clinical and basic science journals.

Evaluation of a virtual dialogue method for breast cancer patient education.

Objective: Virtual dialogue--a voice-activated, interactive computer model that enables a user to have an individual virtual conversation with a real person--was evaluated as a method to educate women about breast cancer. Virtual dialogues with breast cancer experts were developed and used in a field study by women with and without the disease to assess the method's effectiveness.

Methods: In a clinical setting, subjects engaged in one-on-one virtual dialogues with an oncologist and a breast surgeon, and completed automated pre-post instruments developed to measure the feasibility of the method, and subjects' knowledge gain and acceptance of the method.

Primary care physicians' evaluation and treatment of depression: Results of an experimental study using video vignettes.

Little is known about how patient and primary care physician characteristics are associated with quality of depression care. The authors conducted structured interviews of 404 randomly selected primary care physicians after their interaction with CD-ROM vignettes of actors portraying depressed patients. Vignettes varied along the dimensions of medical comorbidity, attributions regarding the cause of depression, style, race/ethnicity, and gender.

An assessment of the virtual conversations method for prostate cancer patient education.

Introduction: Virtual dialogue is a specific educational methodology that employs speech recognition, digital video, and computer technologies in a symbiotic relationship to allow users to have the illusion of a face-to-face conversation with a person in cyberspace. A voice-activated, interactive, virtual dialogue with a prostate cancer specialist was developed and tested in a clinical setting at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC).

Objectives: The purpose of this study was two-fold: (a) to create a prototype virtual dialogue program on the subject of prostate cancer and (b) to evaluate the effectiveness of this method to educate men about their disease and treatment.