iCBLS: An interactive case-based learning system for medical education

• Published in: International journal of medical informatics (Shannon, Ireland) Ireland), 2018-01, Vol.109, p.55-69
• Main Authors: Ali, Maqbool, Han, Soyeon Caren, Bilal, Hafiz Syed Muhammad, Lee, Sungyoung, Kang, Matthew Jee Yun, Kang, Byeong Ho, Razzaq, Muhammad Asif, Amin, Muhammad Bilal
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Case-based learning; Clinical case; Medical education; Teaching methodology
• ISSN: 1386-5056; 1872-8243
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2017.11.004

•This study describes how to foster medical trainees’ collaborative learning skills with the support of online advanced learning technologies and real-world clinical cases.•Designed and developed an interactive Case-Based Learning System (iCBLS) for practising clinical cases before and outside the class.•The iCBLS supports an innovative method to create real-world clinical cases using a semi-automatic approach.•Two types of evaluations under the umbrella of the CIPP model have been performed in heterogeneous environments with a Glycemia study.•The iCBLS achieves a success rate of more than 70% for students’ interaction, group learning, solo learning, and improving clinical skills. Medical students should be able to actively apply clinical reasoning skills to further their interpretative, diagnostic, and treatment skills in a non-obtrusive and scalable way. Case-Based Learning (CBL) approach has been receiving attention in medical education as it is a student-centered teaching methodology that exposes students to real-world scenarios that need to be solved using their reasoning skills and existing theoretical knowledge. In this paper, we propose an interactive CBL System, called iCBLS, which supports the development of collaborative clinical reasoning skills for medical students in an online environment. The iCBLS consists of three modules: (i) system administration (SA), (ii) clinical case creation (CCC) with an innovative semi-automatic approach, and (iii) case formulation (CF) through intervention of medical students’ and teachers’ knowledge. Two evaluations under the umbrella of the context/input/process/product (CIPP) model have been performed with a Glycemia study. The first focused on the system satisfaction, evaluated by 54 students. The latter aimed to evaluate the system effectiveness, simulated by 155 students. The results show a high success rate of 70% for students’ interaction, 76.4% for group learning, 72.8% for solo learning, and 74.6% for improved clinical skills.