At one institution, students on a three-week Nephrology ambulatory rotation start a case in the beginning of the week. The group can work through history in session, physical exam in another, lab section later, and so forth. ClinicSoft patient simulations can be used on CD-ROM for in situations where participants are located beyond the institution. All participant information can be stored on a floppy disk and then handed in when complete. ClinicSoft assists faculty in evaluating students' clinical reasoning skills in situations where real or simulated patients are not available.
Students can practice patient encounters across a broad range of medical problems.
A student's diagnostic reasoning ability can be measured through ClinicSoft's assessment algorithm. Group statistics are generated for easy viewing of performance across one or many cases. ClinicSoft utilizes a medical natural language knowledge base . Students use a realistic form to order diagnostic tests that includes complete cost tracking. The versatility of ClinicSoft allows development of simulations that can be used for independent self-directed learning, group interaction, assessment purposes, or a combination thereof.