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Background: Persons who simulate patients during medical education understand the routines and the underlying script of medical consultations better. We aimed to explore how simulated patients (SPs) integrated this new understanding into their daily life, how this work affected their private life as patients, and what we can learn from these changes for concepts of empowerment.Design, setting, and participants: A qualitative interview study. All SPs of Göttingen medical school who had been working longer than three semesters (n=14) were invited and agreed to take part in an open interview about their daily experience with real doctors. Documentary method was used to identify the main issues. Several cases were chosen according to maximum contrast and analysed by in-depth analysis to provide vivid examples of how simulations may affect the real life of the SPs as patients.Results: Our analysis revealed three main changes in the behaviour of SPs as real patients. They were more attentive, had a better understanding of the circumstances under which doctors work, and acted more self-confidently. From the selected cases it became apparent that working as a SP may lead to a constant and significant decrease of fear of hospitals and medical procedures or, in other cases, may enable the SPs to develop new abilities for giving feedback, questioning procedures, and explanations for real doctors.Conclusion: working as a simulated patient seems to be well-suited to understand own progression of diseases, to increase self-responsibility and to a confident attitude as patient.

BackgroundThe vascular hypothesis of multiple sclerosis (MS), called chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI), and its treatment (known as liberation therapy) was immediately rejected by experts but enthusiastically gripped by patients who shared their experiences with other patients worldwide by use of social media, such as patient online forums. Contradictions between scientific information and lay experiences may be a source of distress for MS patients, but we do not know how patients perceive and deal with these contradictions. ObjectiveWe aimed to understand whether scientific and experiential knowledge were experienced as contradictory in MS patient online forums and, if so, how these contradictions were resolved and how patients tried to reconcile the CCSVI debate with their own illness history and experience. MethodsBy using critical discourse analysis, we studied CCSVI-related posts in the patient online forum of the German MS Society in a chronological order from the first post mentioning CCSVI to the time point when saturation was reached. For that time period, a total of 117 CCSVI-related threads containing 1907 posts were identified. We analyzed the interaction and communication practices of and between individuals, looked for the relation between concrete subtopics to identify more abstract discourse strands, and tried to reveal discourse positions explaining how users took part in the CCSVI discussion. ResultsThere was an emotionally charged debate about CCSVI which could be generalized to 2 discourse strands: (1) the “downfall of the professional knowledge providers” and (2) the “rise of the nonprofessional treasure trove of experience.” The discourse strands indicated that the discussion moved away from the question whether scientific or experiential knowledge had more evidentiary value. Rather, the question whom to trust (ie, scientists, fellow sufferers, or no one at all) was of fundamental significance. Four discourse positions could be identified by arranging them into the dimensions “trust in evidence-based knowledge,” “trust in experience-based knowledge,” and “subjectivity” (ie, the emotional character of contributions manifested by the use of popular rhetoric that seemed to mask a deep personal involvement). ConclusionsBy critical discourse analysis of the CCSVI discussion in a patient online forum, we reconstruct a lay discourse about the evidentiary value of knowledge. We detected evidence criteria in this lay discourse that are different from those in the expert discourse. But we should be cautious to interpret this dissociation as a sign of an intellectual incapability to understand scientific evidence or a naïve trust in experiential knowledge. Instead, it might be an indication of cognitive dissonance reduction to protect oneself against contradictory information.

BackgroundIncreasing numbers of patients are raising their voice in online forums. This shift is welcome as an act of patient autonomy, reflected in the term “expert patient”. At the same time, there is considerable concern that patients can be easily misguided by pseudoscientific research and debate. Little is known about the sources of information used in health-related online forums, how users apply this information, and how they behave in such forums. ObjectiveThe intent of the study was to identify (1) the sources of information used in online health-related forums, and (2) the roles and behavior of active forum visitors in introducing and disseminating this information. MethodsThis observational study used the largest German multiple sclerosis (MS) online forum as a database, analyzing the user debate about the recently proposed and controversial Chronic Cerebrospinal Venous Insufficiency (CCSVI) hypothesis. After extracting all posts and then filtering relevant CCSVI posts between 01 January 2008 and 17 August 2012, we first identified hyperlinks to scientific publications and other information sources used or referenced in the posts. Employing k-means clustering, we then analyzed the users’ preference for sources of information and their general posting habits. ResultsOf 139,912 posts from 11,997 threads, 8628 posts discussed or at least mentioned CCSVI. We detected hyperlinks pointing to CCSVI-related scientific publications in 31 posts. In contrast, 2829 different URLs were posted to the forum, most frequently referring to social media, such as YouTube or Facebook. We identified a total of 6 different roles of hyperlink posters including Social Media Fans, Organization Followers, and Balanced Source Users. Apart from the large and nonspecific residual category of the “average user”, several specific behavior patterns were identified, such as the small but relevant groups of CCSVI-Focused Responders or CCSVI Activators. ConclusionsThe bulk of the observed contributions were not based on scientific results, but on various social media sources. These sources seem to contain mostly opinions and personal experience. A small group of people with distinct behavioral patterns played a core role in fuelling the discussion about CCSVI.

[english] Aims: Negative experiences during the course of medical education have been reported in many countries, but little is known about the perceived severity of these experiences. We studied for the first time how often students at a medical university in Germany have had negative experiences, and how severe they perceive these to be.Method: We asked medical students in an online survey whether they felt adequately appreciated, had experienced peer rivalry, verbal abuse by their mentors, physical abuse or mistreatment, sexual harassment, racial or ethnic discrimination, or any other kind of mistreatment.Results: Of 391 students, 56% stated that they felt insufficiently appreciated, 51% had experienced rivalry, and 34% had suffered verbal abuse. Fifty-nine percent of the students felt highly aggrieved because of verbal abuse, while 46% were aggrieved by the ongoing rivalry and 32% by the lack of appreciation. Significantly fewer students felt upset because they were passed over or ignored (21%). Generally, female students felt more often aggrieved by these negative experiences than their male colleagues.Conclusion: Of the possible negative experiences, the less prominent ones such as lack of appreciation or verbal abuse are not only frequent, they are also perceived as very upsetting. Medical teachers should reflect this more in their day-to-day dealings with students and aim to improve on their contact with the students accordingly.[german] Zielsetzung: Negative Erfahrungen im Medizinstudium sind bereits in vielen Ländern untersucht worden. Wenig ist jedoch darüber bekannt, welche Erfahrungen als belastend empfunden werden. In dieser Studie sollten – zum ersten Mal in Deutschland – Studierende nach der Häufigkeit negativer Erfahrungen und der daraus resultierenden Belastung befragt werden.Methodik: Medizinstudierende wurden online zu Wertschätzung, Konkurrenz, verbal unangemessener Behandlung, körperlicher Maßregelung, sexueller Belästigung, Benachteiligung aufgrund von Herkunft, Nationalität oder Hautfarbe, und anderen Formen negativer Erfahrungen befragt. Ergebnisse: Von 391 Studierenden berichteten 56% von mangelnder Wertschätzung, 51% davon, Konkurrenz erlebt zu haben, und 34% von verbal unangemessener Behandlung. Während 59% sich durch verbal unangemessene Behandlung belastet fühlten, lag der Anteil der Belasteten bei mangelnder Wertschätzung bzw. Konkurrenz bei 46% bzw. 32%. Diese Rate war in anderen Fällen, wie bei der Erfahrung „Übergangen oder nicht beachtet zu werden“ deutlich niedriger (21%). Weibliche Studierende fühlten sich insgesamt häufiger belastet als männliche. Schlussfolgerung: Weniger spektakuläre Formen wie mangelnde Wertschätzung oder verbal unangemessene Behandlung sind nicht nur häufig, sondern werden auch als belastend empfunden. Lehrende in der medizinischen Ausbildung sollten die Gefahr, Studierende gerade auch auf diese Weise zu verletzen, kritisch reflektieren.

[english] Aims: Different approaches to performance-oriented allocation of resources according to teaching quality are currently being discussed within German medical schools. The implementation of these programmes is impeded by a lack of valid criteria to measure teaching quality. An assessment of teaching quality should include structural and procedural aspects but focus on learning outcome itself. The aim of this study was to implement a novel, outcome-based evaluation tool within the clinical phase of a medical curriculum and address differences between the novel tool and traditional evaluation methods. Methods: Student self-assessments before and after completion of a teaching module were used to compute performance gains for specific learning objectives. Mean performance gains in each module were compared to student expectations before the module and data derived from a traditional evaluation tool using overall course ratings at the end of the module.Results: A ranking of the 21 modules according to computed performance gains yielded entirely different results than module rankings based on overall course ratings. There was no significant correlation between performance gain and overall ratings. However, the latter were significantly correlated to student expectations before entering the module as well as structural and procedural parameters (Pearson’s r 0.7-0.9).Conclusion: Performance gain computed from comparative self-assessments adds an important new dimension to course evaluation in medical education. In contrast to overall course ratings, the novel tool is less heavily confounded by construct-irrelevant factors. Thus, it appears to be more appropriate than overall course ratings in determining teaching quality and developing algorithms to guide performance-oriented resource allocation in medical education. [german] Zielsetzung: Aktuell werden an den deutschen medizinischen Fakultäten unterschiedliche Konzepte zur leistungsorientierten Mittelvergabe (LOM) in der Lehre diskutiert. Die Umsetzung scheitert mitunter am Mangel valider Messkriterien zur Beurteilung der Lehrqualität. Neben der Struktur und den Prozessen der Lehre sollte das Ergebnis der Lehre im Mittelpunkt der Qualitätsbewertung stehen. Ziele dieser Arbeit waren die Erprobung eines neuen, lernzielbezogenen Evaluationssystems im klinischen Abschnitt des Studiums der Humanmedizin und der Vergleich der Ergebnisse mit den Daten eines traditionellen Evaluationsverfahrens.Methodik: Aus studentischen Selbsteinschätzungen zu Beginn und Ende eines jeden Lehrmoduls wurde nach einer neu entwickelten Formel der lernzielbezogene, prozentuale Lernerfolg berechnet. Die Lernerfolgs-Mittelwerte pro Modul wurden mit traditionellen Evaluationsparametern, insbesondere mit Globalbewertungen, ins Verhältnis gesetzt.Ergebnisse: Der mittels vergleichender Selbsteinschätzungen berechnete Lernerfolg und die Globalbewertungen produzierten deutlich unterschiedliche Rangfolgen der 21 klinischen Module. Zwischen dem Lernerfolg und den Globalbewertungen fand sich keine statistisch signifikante Korrelation. Allerdings korrelierten die Globalbewertungen stark mit den studentischen Erwartungen vor Modulbeginn und mit strukturellen und prozeduralen Parametern der Lehre (Pearson’s r zwischen 0,7 und 0,9). Schlussfolgerung: Die Messung des Lernzuwachses mittels vergleichender studentischer Selbsteinschätzungen kann die traditionelle Evaluation um eine wichtige Dimension erweitern. Im Unterschied zu studentischen Globalbewertungen ist das neue Instrument lernzielbezogen und unabhängiger vom Einfluss Konstrukt-irrelevanter Parameter. Hinsichtlich der Entwicklung eines LOM-Algorithmus eignet sich das neue Instrument gut zur Beurteilung der Lehrqualität.

BackgroundBoth healthy and sick people increasingly use electronic media to obtain medical information and advice. For example, Internet users may send requests to Web-based expert forums, or so-called “ask the doctor” services. ObjectiveTo automatically classify lay requests to an Internet medical expert forum using a combination of different text-mining strategies. MethodsWe first manually classified a sample of 988 requests directed to a involuntary childlessness forum on the German website “Rund ums Baby” (“Everything about Babies”) into one or more of 38 categories belonging to two dimensions (“subject matter” and “expectations”). After creating start and synonym lists, we calculated the average Cramer’s V statistic for the association of each word with each category. We also used principle component analysis and singular value decomposition as further text-mining strategies. With these measures we trained regression models and determined, on the basis of best regression models, for any request the probability of belonging to each of the 38 different categories, with a cutoff of 50%. Recall and precision of a test sample were calculated as a measure of quality for the automatic classification. ResultsAccording to the manual classification of 988 documents, 102 (10%) documents fell into the category “in vitro fertilization (IVF),” 81 (8%) into the category “ovulation,” 79 (8%) into “cycle,” and 57 (6%) into “semen analysis.” These were the four most frequent categories in the subject matter dimension (consisting of 32 categories). The expectation dimension comprised six categories; we classified 533 documents (54%) as “general information” and 351 (36%) as a wish for “treatment recommendations.” The generation of indicator variables based on the chi-square analysis and Cramer’s V proved to be the best approach for automatic classification in about half of the categories. In combination with the two other approaches, 100% precision and 100% recall were realized in 18 (47%) out of the 38 categories in the test sample. For 35 (92%) categories, precision and recall were better than 80%. For some categories, the input variables (ie, “words”) also included variables from other categories, most often with a negative sign. For example, absence of words predictive for “menstruation” was a strong indicator for the category “pregnancy test.” ConclusionsOur approach suggests a way of automatically classifying and analyzing unstructured information in Internet expert forums. The technique can perform a preliminary categorization of new requests and help Internet medical experts to better handle the mass of information and to give professional feedback.