Virtual Patients: Integrating Pharmacology Across the Curriculum

The Virtual Patient (VP) is a web-based patient that students ‘see’ in the form of brief narrative vignettes, and for whom students are responsible for treating in a virtual clinical setting. Each patient ‘visit’ allows students to make decisions regarding treatment options, each of which impacts the presentation of subsequent visits (through branching of the decision tree structure) and ultimately patient outcome. The key feature of the VP will be integration of pharmacology with basic and health science fields, both vertically and horizontally, throughout the MD undergraduate curriculum. Each VP will be developed with a realistic history and presentation in order to allow students to apply their clinical judgement and make medication recommendations in a realistic context. In this way students will increase their overall pharmacology knowledge, develop life-long skills related to polypharmacy management, and ultimately become safer and more effective medication prescribers.

Jennifer Shabbits, MD Undergraduate Education / Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Faculty of Medicine
Stan Bardal, MD Undergraduate Education, Island Medical Program, Faculty of Medicine