How is the situation of women in leadership positions in medical education in Germany?

In Germany, about two thirds of students and doctoral candidates in medicine are female. The proportion is only about 35% for post-doctoral degrees and much lower for many leadership positions at medical schools and on medical education committees. Although reasons for this have long been known, changes are slow in coming. Therefore, with this commentary, we would like to shed light on the current situation regarding gender equality in Germany in medical education and identify and discuss measures. These include, for example, mentoring and networking programs as well as greater consideration of women in committees.In Deutschland sind etwa zwei Drittel der Studierenden und der Promovierenden in der Medizin weiblich. Bei den Habilitationen liegt der Anteil nur noch bei ca. 35% und bei vielen Leitungspositionen an Fakultäten und in Gremien der medizinischen Ausbildung deutlich darunter. Obwohl Gründe hierfür lange bekannt sind, kommen Änderungen nur langsam voran. Wir möchten daher mit diesem Kommentar die aktuelle Situation bezüglich der Gleichstellung in Deutschland in der medizinischen Ausbildung beleuchten und Maßnahmen aufzeigen und diskutieren. Dazu gehören z.B. Mentoring- und Vernetzungsprogramme sowie die stärkere Berücksichtigung von Frauen in Gremien

A Qualitative Analysis of Virtual Patient Descriptions in Healthcare Education Based on a Systematic Literature Review

Background: Virtual Patients (VPs) have been in the focus of research in healthcare education for many years. The aim of our study was to analyze how virtual patients are described in the healthcare education literature, and how the identified concepts relate to each other. Methods: We performed a literature review and extracted 185 descriptions of virtual patients from the articles. In a qualitative content analysis approach we inductively-deductively developed categories and deducted subcategories. We constructed a concept map to illustrate these concepts and their interrelations. Results: We developed the following five main categories: Patient, Teacher, Virtual Patient, Curriculum, and Learner. The concept map includes these categories and highlights aspects such as the under-valued role of patients in shaping their virtual representation and opposing concepts, such as standardization of learner activity versus learner-centeredness. Conclusions: The presented concept map synthesizes VP descriptions and serves as a basis for both, VP use and discussions of research topics related to virtual patients

Developing and analysing a curriculum map in Occupational- and Environmental Medicine

Background: During the last 5 years a fundamental curriculum reform was realized at the medical school of the Ludwig Maximilians University. In contrast to those efforts, the learning objectives were not defined consistently for the curriculum and important questions concerning the curriculum could not be answered. This also applied to Occupational and Environmental Medicine where teachers of both courses were faced with additional problems such as the low number of students attending the lectures. The aims of the study were to develop and analyse a curriculum map for Occupational and Environmental Medicine based on learning objectives using a web-based database. Furthermore we aimed to evaluate student perception about the curricular structure. Methods: Using a web-based learning objectives database, a curriculum map for Occupational and Environmental Medicine was developed and analysed. Additionally online evaluations of students for each course were conducted. Results: The results show a discrepancy between the taught and the assessed curriculum. For both curricula, we identified that several learning objectives were not covered in the curriculum. There were overlaps with other content domains and redundancies within both curricula. 53% of the students in Occupational Medicine and 43% in Environmental Medicine stated that there is a lack of information regarding the learning objectives of the curriculum. Conclusions: The results of the curriculum mapping and the poor evaluation results for the courses suggest a need for re-structuring both curricula

What are effects of a spaced activation of virtual patients in a pediatric course?

BACKGROUND: Virtual patients (VPs) have a long tradition in the curriculum of the medical faculty at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich. However, the pediatric VPs were not well integrated into the curriculum and hardly used by students. METHODS: Therefore we created and implemented a self-contained E-learning module based on virtual patients (VPs), which was embedded into the pediatric curriculum. Students taking this course were divided into two groups. For Group A the virtual patients were activated in a timed order (“spaced activation”), whereas Group B could work on all VPs from the beginning. We investigated the performance of these two groups concerning usage pattern including number of sessions and session duration, score on questions integrated into the VP and results of the intermediate exam. RESULTS: The integration of the VPs into the pediatric course was successful for both groups. The usage pattern for the spaced activation turned out to be more balanced, however we did not find any significant differences in the results of the intermediate exam, the score on questions included in the VPs nor in the time students spent working on the VPs. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that the spaced activation led to a more balanced VP usage pattern with a lower peak of sessions at the end of the course. Further studies will have to investigate whether a spaced activation of VPs leads to favorable long-term learning outcomes