The three EUGLOH partners Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Université Paris-Saclay and Universidade do Porto, together with the University of Augsburg as the main coordinator as well as the Jagiellonian University in Poland and the University of Zaragoza in Spain, successfully submitted an Erasmus+ application on Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness. The project aims to jointly develop an International Collection of Virtual Patients (iCoViP) to advance Digitised Education in Europe beyond the pandemic.
Virtual patients are interactive, case-based learning activities suitable to promote problem-solving and clinical reasoning, which are important abilities medical students have to master to become professionals. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, universities worldwide were urged to quickly transform their curriculum into online formats. The impact on medical education was even more significant as patient contact and the availability of non-COVID-19 related patients was very limited. But even beyond the pandemic, the desire for a continued use of the virtual patients after the return to face-to-face teaching virtual patients was expressed by educators, faculty staff and students.
Therefore, the primary objective of this new project is to provide a high-quality multilingual collection of virtual patients for medical students and young professionals. The collection will provide adaptive and deliberate practice of clinical reasoning in different contexts and complexities and support mobility activities and language training of medical students and young professionals. The second objective is to raise awareness about virtual patients and their curricular integration among educators and faculty staff. And, the third objective is to sustain this new partnership after the funding period and establish a strong collaboration to further develop the virtual patient collection and support others in integrating virtual patients into their curriculum. The project will start with a virtual kick-off meeting on 22nd and 23rd of April.