ReviewBMC medical education2015
Virtual patients--what are we talking about? A framework to classify the meanings of the term in healthcare education.
Review in BMC medical education, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 68 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
68 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Virtual patients in medical education: a bibliometric analysis based on the wos core collection and scopus databases.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Pooled it
- The effectiveness of virtual reality training on knowledge, skills and attitudes of health care professionals and students in assessing and treating mental health disorders: a systematic review.BMC medical education · 2024Pooled it
- Virtual patients in undergraduate psychiatry education: a systematic review and synthesis.Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice · 2024Pooled it
- Digital undergraduate medical education and patient and carer involvement: a rapid systematic review of current practice.BMC medical education · 2023Pooled it
- The effectiveness of using virtual patient educational tools to improve medical students' clinical reasoning skills: a systematic review.BMC medical education · 2022Pooled it
- Publication activities relating to digital teaching and learning in the GMS Journal for Medical Education - a descriptive analysis (1984-2020).GMS journal for medical education · 2022Pooled it
- Blended Learning Compared to Traditional Learning in Medical Education: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2020Pooled it
- Virtual Patient Simulations in Health Professions Education: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis by the Digital Health Education Collaboration.Journal of medical Internet research · 2019Pooled it
- A qualitative analysis of virtual patient descriptions in healthcare education based on a systematic literature review.BMC medical education · 2016Pooled it
- Virtual Standardized Patients for Improving Clinical Thinking Ability Training in Residents: Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR medical education · 2025Trial
- Comparison of virtual and in-person simulations for sepsis and trauma resuscitation training in Singapore: a randomized controlled trialJournal of educational evaluation for health professions · 2024Trial
- Learning clinical reasoning: how virtual patient case format and prior knowledge interact.BMC medical education · 2020Trial
- Virtual patients versus small-group teaching in the training of oral and maxillofacial surgery: a randomized controlled trial.BMC medical education · 2019Trial
- Student self-reported communication skills, knowledge and confidence across standardised patient, virtual and traditional clinical learning environments.BMC medical education · 2016Trial
- A Large Language Model-Powered Multiagent Framework Emulating Standardized Patients in Clinical Communication Skills Training: Development and Evaluation Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- Article
- Dopamine, Distraction, and Disruption: Perspectives on How Technology and Generation Z Are Reshaping Medical Education.JMIR medical education · 2026Article
- Game Elements in Military Trauma Care Education: Systematic Review.JMIR serious games · 2026Review
- Application of large language models in medical interview training: a study with medical students.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Blending simulation and e-learning in medical education to enhance professional competence and skills acquisition.BMC medical education · 2026Article
8 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe term "virtual patients" (VPs) has been used for many years in academic publications, but its meaning varies, leading to confusion. Our aim was to investigate and categorize the use of the term "virtual patient" and then classify its use in healthcare education.
methodsA literature review was conducted to determine all articles using the term "virtual patient" in the title or abstract. These articles were categorized into: Education, Clinical Procedures, Clinical Research and E-Health. All educational articles were further classified based on a framework published by Talbot et al. which was further developed using a deductive content analysis approach.
results536 articles published between 1991 and December 2013 were included in the study. From these, 330 were categorized as educational. Classifying these showed that 37% articles used VPs in the form of Interactive Patient Scenarios. VPs in form of High Fidelity Software Simulations (19%) and Virtual Standardized Patients (16%) were also frequent. Less frequent were other forms, such as VP Games. Analyzing the literature across time shows an overall trend towards the use of Interactive Patient Scenarios as the predominant form of VPs in healthcare education.
conclusionsThe main form of educational VPs in the literature are Interactive Patient Scenarios despite rapid technical advances that would support more complex applications. The adapted classification provides a valuable model for VP developers and researchers in healthcare education to more clearly communicate the type of VP they are addressing avoiding misunderstandings.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.