The UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences is one of
eight medical schools that the American Medical Association is
funding to create patient simulations for students.
Avery
K. Ellis, MD, PhD, associate dean for medical
curriculum, will join seven faculty from leading institutions to
develop the virtual internal medicine cases.
Medical students use simulation software to interview and
examine virtual patients, order and review diagnostic tests,
develop diagnostic hypotheses and create treatment plans.
Online feedback and guidance occur at every step of the
simulation.
“For our students, working on patient simulations complete
with actual test results and realistic clinical data—such as
audible heart sounds, angiograms and ultrasound studies—is
far more beneficial than just reading about the same disease in a
textbook,” says Ellis, associate professor of medicine
and physiology.
Encounters with Web-based patients complement UB students’
experiences at the Behling Simulation
Center, he adds.
In addition to UB, the other institutions leading the
development of simulated patient encounters are:
- Columbia University
- Cornell University
- Northwestern University
- University of Chicago
- Tufts University
- Rush University
- Stony Brook University
The AMA gave $100,000 to the consortium, which was formed by the
developers of the i-Human Patients platform, a cloud-based service
that simulates patient visits for medical students.
The new cases are expected to be completed, peer-reviewed and
included in UB’s third-year medical curriculum starting in
July.
Ellis is developing cases on such topics as heart failure,
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, electrolyte abnormalities
and syncope.
He is writing them with Susan
J. Gallagher, MD, clinical associate professor of medicine and
director for third- and fourth-year internal medicine
clerkships.
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