Practical education and contact with patients is an important feature in the medical curriculum of the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC). Future physicians need to learn certain practical skills, like observing patients and obtaining a medical history. However, the number and availability of patients is often limited. To solve this problem, the Center for Education in Internal Medicine at the LUMC started a Digital Video project. Clinical examinations of patients are recorded on video. This material is then processed and integrated into computer self-learning instruction. Thus, the clinical examination of one patient can serve for years of medical student education and can be used in different small group sessions at the same time.

Currently a computer-assisted instruction about the clinical examination of a rheumatology patient is being developed. The student chooses questions from a list in order to proceed through the interview. Each question is followed by an answer on video and feedback information. At the end of the history taking, the complete clinical examination is shown on video. Furthermore, the student must diagnose the case and is tested via a small question list.

This computer-assisted instruction is developed in Authorware 5 Attain. Due to the large file sizes of the video fragments, this instruction will only be available on the internal education network or on CD-ROM. The basic setting of this computer-assisted instruction can easily be used for instructing clinical examination in other medical disciplines.

BENEFIT TO PARTICIPANTS ATTENDING SESSION:

This computer instruction provides a solution for the limited number and availability of real patients in teaching clinical history taking. The attendees will experience that this method of teaching can be applied to several medical disciplines. Participants are invited to discuss advantages and disadvantages of the utilization of video formats.

A.W. Riedstra
LUMC, Albinusdreef 2, 2333 ZA Leiden, Netherlands Phone: +31 (0)71-526 3025
Fax: +31 (0)71-526 6857
Email: a.w.riedstra@lumc.nl

CO-AUTHORS:
M.G. Nijnuis, P.G.M. de Jong, J.H. Bolk
LUMC, Albinusdreef 2, 2333 ZA Leiden, Netherlands Phone: P.G.M. de Jong: +31 (071) 526 1995 Fax: +31 (0)71-526 6857
Email: p.g.m.de_jong@lumc.nl