The Problem:
Contemporary medicine using video, text, or chat to remotely care for patients is transforming healthcare. However, most telemedicine training applications only provide simulation for a hospital setting, and affordable simulation tools to prepare healthcare providers for electronic visits are limited.
The Technology:
A collaborative HITS Lab team from the Colleges of Nursing and Engineering at the University of Tennessee have developed V-Visit Sim, a cross-platform (web-based and mobile app [iOS and Android]) application that simulates telemedicine encounters through patient–provider chat messages, offering interaction, assessment, and feedback. The training application is intended to improve diagnostic competency and decrease diagnostic errors when using this modern healthcare tool in the real world.
Prototype of V-Visit Sim. The application interacts with the healthcare provider via simulated messaging.
Different case studies can be imported for training on making various diagnoses.
Benefits:
The Inventors:
Dr. Lisa Merritt is a clinical assistant professor in the College of Nursing at UT. Her research interests include pediatric ENT, technology-supported nursing education, and innovative teaching strategies. She is also a reviewer for the Journal of Pediatric Health Care and the Journal for Nurse Practitioners and is the current president of St. Louis Pediatric Nurse Practitioners.
Dr. Xueping Li is a professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at UT. His research interests include health information technology & mobile health; health care systems engineering; and complex systems modeling, simulation, and optimization. He is the director of the Ideation Laboratory and co-director of the Health Innovation Technology and Simulation (HITS) Lab at UT.