Research & Efficacy
Visually diagnosed medical tests (e.g. radiographs) are the most ordered tests in front-line medicine. As such, front-line health care professionals are faced with the task of learning the skill of interpreting these images to an expert performance level by the time they provide opinions that guide patient management decisions. However, discordant interpretations of these images between front-line physicians and expert counterparts (e.g. radiologists) is a common cause of medical error, and this can be as high as 30%.
Our research to date shows that this learning method works – physicians at varying levels of expertise significantly increase their accuracy in image interpretation by about 15% after just an hour of practice.
ImageSim™ provides a comprehensive and evidence-based on-line education system that teaches health care professionals the interpretation of visually diagnosed medical tests. Our system integrates grounded education theory such as cognitive simulation, deliberate practice, and competency-based medicine. As such, our learning model includes sustained active practice of hundreds of cases that represents the spectrum of clinical presentations, and the learner commits to diagnosis for every case after which they receive immediate specific feedback on their interpretation so that the participant instantly learns from each case. Participants are also tasked to achieve a competency standard derived from data of practising physicians.
Our research to date shows that this learning method works – physicians at varying levels of expertise significantly increase their accuracy in image interpretation by about 15% after just an hour of practice.