The eViP Virtual Patient referatory is now available. This gives medical educators and their students open access to our collection of repurposed virtual patients (VPs).
As Dr David Davies from The University of Warwick Medical School explains: “The main goal of the eViP programme is to make available a large collection of repurposed VP cases. Repurposing VPs is a way of sharing existing resources by converting from one language to another for example, or between the different healthcare cultures across Europe, or even between different software systems. It is an efficient and cost effective way of adding value to existing content.”
Available now is the first set of what will ultimately be a collection of 320 VPs, each one free at the point of use under a Creative Commons license.
“Between now and the end of the eViP programme in August 2010 we will be releasing further content through the referatory.,” says David. “The referatory is essentially a catalogue of VPs, with descriptions of what the user can expect from each VP, the healthcare topics covered, who created it, and where you can find it on the Internet. Each VP can be played in situ, so you don’t even need your own VP system.”
So who can use these VPs? “First and foremost the VPs are aimed at medical educators so they can adapt them for their own teaching.” says David. “But students can access these directly if they wish. Everyone should definitely check back often to view the latest content.”