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Medical Science Educator

, Volume 29, Issue 3, pp 739–747 | Cite as

Gamification: an Innovative Approach to Reinforce Clinical Knowledge for MD-PhD Students During Their PhD Research Years

  • Mark E. Pepin
  • William M. WebbEmail author
  • Sushma Boppana
  • Alice N. Weaver
  • Randy L. Seay
  • Donald M. Dempsey
  • James H. Willig
  • William M. Geisler
  • Robin G. Lorenz
Original Research

Abstract

A longstanding challenge facing MD-PhD students and other dual-degree medical trainees is the loss of clinical knowledge that occurs during the non-medical phases of training. Academic medical institutions nationwide have developed continued clinical training and exposure to maintain clinical competence; however, quantitative assessment of their usefulness remains largely unexplored. The current study therefore sought to both implement and optimize an online game platform to support MD-PhD students throughout their research training. Sixty-three current MD-PhD students completing the PhD research phase of training were enrolled in an institutionally developed online game platform for 2 preliminary and 4 competition rounds of 3–4 weeks each. During preliminary game rounds, we found that participation, though initially high, declined precipitously throughout the duration of each round, with 37 students participating to some extent. Daily reminders were implemented in subsequent rounds, which markedly improved player participation. Average participation in competition rounds exceeded 35% (23/63) active participants each round, with trending improvement in scores throughout the duration of PhD training. Both player participation and progress through the research phase of the MD-PhD program correlated positively with game performance and therefore knowledge retention and/or acquisition. Coupled with positive survey-based feedback from participants, our data therefore suggest that gamification is an effective tool for MD-PhD programs to combat loss of clinical knowledge during research training.

Keywords

Gamification Spaced repetition Knowledge decay MD-PhD Formative assessment 

Abbreviations

ANCOVA

Analysis of Covariance

ANOVA

Analysis of Variance

CCE

Continuing Clinical Education

MSTP

Medical Scientist Training Program

UAB

University of Alabama at Birmingham

USMLE

United States Medical Licensing Examination

Notes

Funding Information

This project was supported by a Teaching Innovation & Development Grant from the UAB Center for Teaching and Learning and the UAB Medical Scientist Training Program T32GM008361.

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Supplementary material

40670_2019_725_MOESM1_ESM.docx (19 kb)
(DOCX 19.1 KB)
40670_2019_725_MOESM2_ESM.docx (19 kb)
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Copyright information

© International Association of Medical Science Educators 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  • Mark E. Pepin
    • 1
  • William M. Webb
    • 1
    Email author
  • Sushma Boppana
    • 1
  • Alice N. Weaver
    • 1
  • Randy L. Seay
    • 1
  • Donald M. Dempsey
    • 1
  • James H. Willig
    • 1
  • William M. Geisler
    • 1
  • Robin G. Lorenz
    • 1
  1. 1.UAB School of MedicineUniversity of Alabama at BirminghamBirminghamUSA

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