 | Checking over the IVIMEDS database are Professor Stephen Smith from B... Checking over the IVIMEDS database are Professor Stephen Smith from Brown University in the United States with Dean of the Graduate School of Medicine Professor Liz Farmer (left) and Associate Professor Lori Lockyer |
GSM moves into next phase of ‘virtual patients’ technology
22 Aug 2008 | Kate McIlwain
UOW’s Graduate School of Medicine (GSM) is an international award winner in the use of online technology as part of its training process for our future medical graduates.
And now the GSM is developing the next stage of its use of ‘virtual patients’ as part of its overall online learning environment.
Virtual patients are on line simulations of real patient cases which may include sophisticated imaging, audiovisual resources, graphics and other reusable learning objects to assist student learning.
Dean of the GSM, Professor Liz Farmer, said the school was now developing these techniques for Phase 3 students to use as part of curriculum delivery in their longitudinal integrated rural and regional placements.
One of the main aims of the GSM is to train doctors who will practise in rural, regional and remote areas of Australia.
“Our virtual patients will be peer reviewed and eventually added to the International Virtual Medical School (IVIMEDS) database for partners such as UOW to use,” Professor Farmer said.
She said that GSM staff would collaborate with the Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Education, Associate Professor Lori Lockyer and Professor Stephen Smith from the Department of Family Medicine in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in the United States.
Professor Smith, who paid a special visit to UOW this week, is Chair of the Education Committee of IVIMEDS. He is internationally renowned for his work in medical education and was the architect of the competency-based curriculum at Brown University that has been replicated at many medical schools around the world.
“This will be an exciting venture to design, deliver and evaluate the impact on student learning of the virtual patient approach at UOW,” Professor Farmer said.
Professor Farmer will attend an international steering committee meeting of IVIMEDS in Amsterdam this month at which time she will hold further discussions with Professor Smith and other potential international partners.
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