Media Article: Back to Pharmacy School, Part 1 - What's Being Taught Now?
By: Karen Berger, PharmD
Submitted by: Lee Ann Miller, SP Educator, WV STEPS

The WVU School of Pharmacy is an exemplary entity at the David and JoAnn Shaw Center for Simulation Training and Education for Patient Safety (STEPS), the simulation center for all of WVU Health Sciences.  As this practicing pharmacist will attest, students today reap wide benefits from the learning experiences afforded to them by the forward thinking faculty of our institution. Simulation and interprofessional activity are paramount. We are proud to support student centered learning and the “flipped” classroom, by providing educational experiences with dozens of Standardized Patients, GTAs, and MUTAs. WV STEPS was recently mentioned in an article at Pharmacy Times, which can be read here.

Research Article: Performance of International Medical Students In Psychosocial Medicine
Lead Author: Daniel Huhn
Submitted by: Janice Radway, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Research shows that international students perform poorer than their local counterparts in written and oral examinations as well as in Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) in the fields of internal medicine and surgery. This 2017 study, which took place at the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg, Germany, is the first to examine how they compare in a psychosocial medicine OSCE. While there were no differences in their factual and practical knowledge, there were significant differences in conversational skills, on which the field relies heavily. Read the full article in the BMC Medical Education here.

General Interest: Data Visualization in Medical Communication
Source: 90TEN Healthcare
Submitted by: Michael Maury, UCSD School of Medicine

In the increasingly data-rich but time-poor environment of clinical practice, doctors face the escalating challenge of maintaining up-to-date clinical knowledge. By 2020, it is estimated that medical knowledge will be doubling every 73 days. How can medical communications help to meet this challenge and ensure that the content delivered is in a clear and understandable format, and can be assimilated quickly? One solution is data visualization. Read the full article at PMLiVE here.

Essay: My Real Patients
By: Lisa Simon, D.M.D.
Submitted by: Janice Radway, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

In this essay, medical student Lisa Simon compares her interactions with standardized patients in a clinical exam to her work as a dentist in a local jail. She describes how both encounters are watched by an outside eye (whether by video camera or security guard) and how that observation affects the interaction. She expresses her desire to receive the same authentic feedback from her “real patients” as she receives from her SPs. Read the full essay in the New England Journal of Medicine here.

General Interest: New Cell Phone App Improves Patient Experience and Drives Growth
Source: The Holvan Group
Submitted by: Michael Maury, UCSD School of Medicine

“The Holvan Group, a technology company focused on improving the patient experience and easing the burden placed on physicians, today announced the launch of two apps that complement the company's educational videos and expand patient engagement. The Holvan Group's proprietary technologies streamline the patient preparation process and improve the interaction between patients and healthcare providers.” Technology is continually expanding and being utilized in the world of medicine. We as SP Educators must be diligent in keeping up with these changes and incorporating them into our curriculums and teachings. Read for more information that may spark new ideas to incorporate into your program. Read the full article at Cleveland 19 News here.

Research Article: Impact of Standardized Simulated Patients on First-Year Pharmacy Students’ Knowledge Retention of Insulin Injection Technique and Counseling Skills
Lead author: Riley Bowers, PharmD
Submitted by: Robert MacAulay, Director, Standardized Patient Program UCSD School of Medicine

Objective. To compare pre- and post-intervention test scores assessing insulin injection technique and counseling skills among P1 students with (intervention) or without (control) simulated patients, and to compare counseling checklist and knowledge retention test scores between groups.

General Interest: Future Physician, Heal Thyself – Get Thee to a Gallery
By: Tom Jacobs
Submitted by: Valerie Fulmer, ASPE President

Envision a new generation of doctors who are more compassionate toward their patients, less prone to jumping to conclusions, and less likely to feel burned out. Then imagine such characteristics could be cultivated by tweaking the physician-training program. Sound good? Well, new research suggests such a shift is entirely possible. The key is exposing our future MDs to the arts. Read the full article at Pacific Standard here.

Media Article: Standardized Patients and the Art of Medical Maladies
By: David Owens
Submitted by: Anna Lank, Managing Director C3NY

Natalie Wilder was sitting on a couch in a greenroom, using her iPhone to apply for a part in a film. Back in June, she starred in a one-woman play, “Fresh Hell: The Life and Loves of Dorothy Parker,” at the Oldcastle Theatre Company, in Bennington, Vermont. In an hour, she was going to reprise a different solo role, one of dozens she’s performed multiple times in recent years. “Today, I have lower-back pain,” she said, as she scrolled through her calendar. Read the full article in The New Yorker here.

Member Submissions: Life Hacks for the SP Educator
By: Dan Brown, Emory School of Medicine, with contributions from ASPE membership

Occasionally members the ASPE Publications Committee will crowdsource content using the ASPE listserv. Keep an eye on listserv emails for opportunities to contribute! For more information on the listserv, click here.

General Interest: Alan Alda Shares Communication Wisdom at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Submitted by: Janice Radway, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Actor Alan Alda (of M*A*S*H fame) recently spoke to the students and faculty of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University during “The Patient Will See You Now,” a special grand rounds lecture held at the school. During the past several years, Alda has been helping scientists learn to communicate more clearly with the public through his work with Stony Brook University School of Journalism’s Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. While Alda did not specifically discuss the use of SPs, we educators know what a valuable tool SPs provide for building empathy and communication skills. Alda’s staff held workshops designed to help healthcare providers hone their communication skills with interprofessional teams as well as patients, often using improvisational theater exercises. Read the full article in Rowan Today here.

Research Article: The Effects of Using High-fidelity Simulators and Standardized Patients on the Thorax, Lung, and Cardiac Examination Skills of Undergraduate Nursing Students
Lead author: Hilal Tuzer
Submitted by: Michael Maury, UCSD School of Medicine

Are standardized patients more effective than high-fidelity simulators in training thorax-lungs and cardiac examinations? This research article describes a study in which fifty-two 4th year nursing students took part in an exercise that compared the effects of each type of training. Read the full article in Nurse Education Today here.

Research Article: Physical Examination Skills Training: Faculty Staff vs. Patient Instructor Feedback—A Controlled Trial
Lead author: Markus Krautter
Submitted by: Todd Lash, Publications Committee Chair

Krautter et al conducted a randomized controlled study comparing feedback of PIs and faculty staff following a physical examination assessed by students and video assessors. Standardized patients acting at Patient instructors (PIs) and faculty staff physicians separately delivered feedback to 40 medical students that had performed a physical examination on the respective PI while the physicians observed the performance. The physical examination was rated by two independent video assessors to provide an objective performance standard. Feedback of PI and physicians was content analyzed by two different independent video assessors based on a provided checklist and compared to the performance standard. There was no statistical significant difference concerning overall matching of physician or PI feedback. The study demonstrates that trained PIs are able to provide feedback of equal quantitative value to that of faculty staff physicians with regard to a physical examination performed on them. However, both the students and the video raters judged the quality of the feedback given by the physicians to be significantly better than that of the PIs. Read the full article in PLoS One here.

Affiliate News: Society For Simulation in Healthcare Names Board Members
Submitted by: Valerie Fulmer, ASPE President

WASHINGTON, D.C. January 20, 2018: The Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) announced today its 2018 board of directors. Read the full release at PRWEB here.

General Interest: ‘What did the doctor say?’ - A Simple Question with a Difficult Answer
By: Richard Klasco and Lewis H. Glinert, The Washington Post
Submitted by: Ken Conselyea, , SP Ohio State University

Few simple questions are as difficult to answer as the perennial “What did the doctor say?” The words are so natural as to be virtually automatic. They spring from our lips, almost of their own accord, whenever a loved one returns from a doctor’s visit. Whether we recognize it or not, the answer has the potential to make us face our own mortality. Read the full article in The Washington Post here.

Research Article: Teaching Medical Students to Express Empathy by Exploring Patient Emotions and Experiences in Standardized Medical Encounters
Lead author: Roger Ruiz-Moral
Submitted by: Janice Radway, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

This study, conducted at Universidad Francisco de Vitoria in Madrid, Spain, looks at how well third-year medical students pick up on patients’ non-verbal and contextual clues as an opportunity to express empathy. The students attended a didactic and then had two SP encounters. SPs were scripted to give “tracking clues” based on how the students responded. This training program was largely successful in teaching students to carry out a deeper exploration of patients’ beliefs, fears and expectations, and thus express more empathetic statements to the patients. Read the full article in Patient Education and Counseling here.

General Interest: The word is out! ASPE Standards of Best Practice publication receives praise from Advances in Simulation Journal
By: Valerie Fulmer, ASPE President

Many of you know of our recent Standards of Best Practice (SOBP) publication in the international journal Advances in Simulation. These standards establish a baseline for best practice in SP methodology essential to this new field and all programs working with SPs. A living document, the SOBP will continue to blossom and grow to serve this community of SP educators and others around the world.

Media Article: Comparing Physical Exam Education at U.S. Medical Schools
By: Anna Williams
Submitted by: Valerie Fulmer, ASPE President

The resources used to teach the physical exam to pre-clerkship medical students vary widely across U.S. medical schools, according to a new study published in the journal Academic Medicine. Toshiko Uchida, MD, director of Clinical Skills Education, was the first author of the study. “The physical exam is a crucial skill for physicians, and several studies suggest that poor physical exam skills can lead to lower-quality care and medical errors,” said Uchida, also an associate professor of Medical Education and of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics. “But every medical school curriculum is unique, and very little is actually known about how medical schools teach the physical exam.” Read the media article in the Northwestern Medicine News Center here, or read the research article in the Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges here.

Research Article: The Influence of Physician and Patient Gender on Risk Assessment for Lung Cancer Resection
Lead author: Mark K. Ferguson MD
Submitted by: Todd Lash, Publications Committee Chair

Patient gender was evaluated for treatment recommendations regarding surgical therapy for lung cancer. Gender-neutral vignettes representing low-risk, average-risk, and high-risk candidates for lung resection were paired with concordant videos of standardized patients (SPs). Cardiothoracic trainees and practicing thoracic surgeons read a vignette, provided an initial estimate of the percentage risk of major adverse events after lung resection, viewed a video (randomized to male or female SP), provided a final estimate of risk, and ranked the importance of the video in the final risk estimate. There was a significant difference between male and female physicians in the absolute change in estimated risk with male physicians having larger changes than female physicians. Differences in estimating complication risk for lung resection candidates are related to physician and patient gender that may create inequities in treatment recommendations. Read the research article in the Annals of Thoracic Surgery here.

Research Article: An Informed Consent Program Enhances Surgery Resident Education
Lead author: Sarah E. Koller MD
Submitted by: Janice Radway, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

At teaching institutions, informed consent for an invasive procedure is often obtained by first-year residents. However, trainees commonly do not receive formal instruction in this area before residency, relying on observation of other residents. The authors at Temple University created an informed consent educational program, which included a didactic component, a role-play about informed consent, and a simulation exercise using standardized patients. Residents became more confident in their ability to obtain informed consent after participating in this program. Read the full article in the Journal of Surgical Education  here.

General Interest: UofL School of Medicine to Host IMPROV FOR CLINICIANS Clinic with The Second City
By: Rob Stein, NPR
Submitted by: Michael Maury, UCSD School of Medicine

Here is another example of how theatrical improvisation is being used to help clinicians improve their communications skills. This article calls attention to students at the University of Louisville School of Medicine who teamed up with a Second City comedy troupe to partake in its “improv for Clinicians” workshop. "Improv for Clinicians" is meant to mirror the clinical experience that students, residents and faculty experience at the UofL School of Medicine, but with an entertaining and humorous twist.”  Might all medical schools benefit from similar workshops? Read about the event that occurred last fall at Broadwayworld.com here and let the creative ideas flow.