Journal of Regional Medical Campuses

Analytic Decision Gaming: A Tool for Crisis Response and Clinical Reasoning

Morgan Decker

Penn State College of Medicine

Jacob Graham

The Pennsylvania State University - College of Information Sciences & Technology

Mark Stephens

Penn State College of Medicine

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0156-1638

DOI: https://doi.org/10.24926/jrmc.v4i1.3387

Keywords: Medical Education, Analytic Decision Gaming, Clinical Reasoning, Regional Campus, Disaster Planning, Public Health, Simulation

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Abstract

Issue:  Medical education traditionally focuses on basic science during the first two years of medical school. To “flip” this model, the Penn State College of Medicine has introduced and inquiry-based educational strategy that introduces students to the challenges of patient care immediately upon their arrival.  To engage students in a process to promote clinical reasoning, we have modified an Analytic Decision Game (ADG) called “EpiCentre” to address a notional public health crisis facing Centre County, Pennsylvania.

Methods: In phase 1 of the activity, students are provided with materials describing the ethnography and infrastructure of Centre County.  Students are divided into three communities (teams) to create a strength, weakness, threat, opportunity (SWOT) analysis of local healthcare capabilities.  In phase 2 of the activity, students meet with a standardized patient presenting with a targeted medical complaint. They are pushed to think about their approach to taking a medical history and asked to generate a differential diagnosis.  In phases 3 and 4, students are faced with the challenge of triaging a number of patients with similar medical complaints and create a plan to deal with a likely outbreak scenario.

Findings:  Students have found the EpiCentre activity to be worthwhile in multiple contexts.  They have been able to develop an initial approach to medical history taking and creating a differential diagnosis.  They have formulated an approach to the recognition and control of a potential public health crisis. An additional benefit of the exercise has been the overarching theme of teamwork. Students begin the activity (occurring in the first few weeks after arrival to medical school) as relative strangers and quickly develop a sense of camaraderie and mission focus.

Conclusions: The EpiCentre ADG has been a successful activity to introduce medical students to Centre County in the context of healthcare infrastructure, an approach to medical history taking, disaster planning, clinical reasoning and team-building.

Implications:  EpiCentre derives from an interprofessional collaboration between the College of Medicine and the College of Information Sciences and Technology.  It represents one of potentially limitless opportunities to engage students and faculty from multiple disciplines to address challenges of public health within the academic setting.