Improving clinical skills for health professional students through simulations

Rajesh Mangrulkar and Richard D. Judge, Medical School, have lead the development and use of the Professional Skill Builder. This tool is a web-based case simulation tool, to improve the history-taking, physical examination, and case management skills of health professional students.

The program contains authentic presentations of real patients and allows the student to interactively progress through each case. Expert feedback is provided to the student along the way, along with a robust decision-support module (called Toolbox) designed to provide "just-in-time" learning. The project is centered at the Medical School through and University of Michigan Health System, but involves extensive collaborative efforts from other University units, including the Duderstadt Center, and a private company.