Pulse!! The Virtual Clinical Learning Lab sets a new trajectory in medical education and training by adapting game-based technologies to create challenging virtual-world learning environments that promote critical thinking and clinical skills in differential diagnosis. Learners navigate a three-dimensional virtual world in real time confronted by symptoms occurring in a whole-body virtual patient. Learners interact with virtual paramedical personnel, order tests, use medical devices and give patients hands-on treatment, as the learning platform provides intelligent feedback and evaluates performance. Pulse!! learning research shows that medical curricula and clinical training are delivered effectively in virtual space. Pulse!! technology promises to reduce real-world medical errors that lead to patient injury and death through iterative clinical education and training in virtual space. Videogame technologies are no longer just for entertainment. Pulse!! is a serious game with the serious purpose of saving lives by improving medical education.
Get more information about this program at http://www.sp.tamucc.edu/pulse/
Dr. Claudia McDonald
Associate Vice President for Special Projects
Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi
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Dr. Claudia L. McDonald, a seasoned higher-education innovator, believes looming changes in medical education and practice demand creative technological responses grounded in sound research. McDonald, Associate Vice President for Special Projects at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, oversees the university’s Center for Virtual Medical Education, a leader in utilizing cutting-edge virtual-world technology. In 2004, McDonald conceived Pulse!! The Virtual Clinical Learning Lab. She currently serves on the Critical Issues Taskforce of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board advisory committee for distance and doctoral education. McDonald completed doctoral studies at the University of Texas at Austin in 1986. |