123 - Formative Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in Anatomy with the Use of the Vancouver Virtual Reality App (VanVRapp)

Poster Board Number: 123
There are separate poster presentation times for odd and even posters.
Odd poster #s – first hour
Even poster #s – second hour

Abstract Body : Introduction: The medical school at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) has planned to expand the number of first-year students from 160 to 200. This puts existing structures for learning and exams in anatomy under pressure. Digital solutions can therefore be a supplement, where using digital platforms is both a way to make the learning process more flexible, dynamic, and adapted to the individual student. First-year medical students at NTNU only have one exam and there is therefore a great need to be able to evaluate their own knowledge during their studies. Digital anatomical specimens can make it easier to evaluate one's knowledge than to use physical anatomical specimens as they are independent of time and space. It is therefore important to know whether the digital specimens are of sufficient quality to identify relevant structures. Can digital anatomical specimens work in an exam situation to evaluate the student's knowledge? Overall, this forms the basis for testing whether digital anatomical specimens can work in a formative examination.
Method: 115 first-year medical students at NTNU took part in the study, which accounted for 75% of all students in the first year. The main objective of the study was to compare results in the score of a test exam in anatomy using a digital specimen and a physical specimen. The exam was a formative OSCE in anatomy. At a summative OSCE exam, the student is evaluated at eight stations. At each station, the student has eight minutes where an examiner assesses their performance in a relevant topic in medicine. One of the topics of the first year is anatomy.
Surveys were conducted both before and after the test exam to obtain information about the students, such as gender, age, educational background, self-perceived preparation, and achievement. The design of the study was a cross-over study with both a digital and physical specimen for both the knee and the shoulder. In surveys, students indicated the extent to which a learning platform offering 3-D preparation of anatomical preparations will increase understanding/knowledge of anatomy.
Results: The students had the same score on the test exam using digital specimens as when using physical specimens; digital 7.92 ± 1.39 versus physical 8.01 ± 1.54. Differences in score between digital and physical were -0.086 points (CI 95% -0.34-0.17). More than 90 per cent of the student’s state that a learning platform that offers 3-D presentation of anatomical specimens will increase their understanding of anatomy.
Conclusion: Digital specimens can work well as an alternative to the use of physical specimens when it comes to evaluating student knowledge. The student states that digital 3-D representation of anatomical specimens, contributes to increased understanding of anatomy.
Significance/Implication: The use of digital specimens in OSCE makes the examination more objective as it uses the same specimen by all students. Furthermore, it is cost-effective as not similar physical specimens have to be prepared. It would be of interest to study whether virtual reality in the VanVRapp can be used for an OSCE in anatomy.