Remember as a kid when you loved reading those "choose your own adventure" books? I think that this, in the form of microsimulation, is the wave of the future in medical education -- more so than high fidelity macro-simulation (which I know is a controversial statement). Microsimulation is just a form of simulation, which is conducted on a personal computer without a physical component such as a mannequin.I'm working on such a microsimulation model for CDEM, called Digital Cases in Emergency Medicine (DIEM). Students can manage undifferentiated patients in a more realistic fashion. The cases are timed, and the students need to complete the ED medical chart on the patient case at the end. Ideally these DIEM cases will allow students to have "managed" a spectrum of medical and traumatic conditions before graduating medical school, which is a U.S. medical school requirement according to the Liaison Committee for Medical Education (LCME).
I've been spending the last year slowly learning Adobe Flash to build a demo case. It's an incredibly powerful and versatile software. Now if only I knew how to harnass all of its features. It's a work in progress, but you are welcome to get a sneak peak into the VERY EARLY stages at:
http://www.cdemcurriculum.org/diem/DIEMcase1v2.html
Select the "Chest Pain" case. Please feel free to comment and make suggestions. If I do this right, DIEM cases will be a novel learning tool for all U.S. EM clerkships, similar to how CLIPP cases serve as great resources for U.S. pediatric clerkships.
Fortunately, my friend Dave has generously volunteered to help me get past some of the technical hurdles which have stalled my momentum. I caught him as he's on a work hiatus, because he's transitioning jobs from Yahoo to Facebook. I'm lucky to have friends smarter than me.
