Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna

MEDSKILL - Development of Medical Skills by Simulation

As of today, the need for practical skills and problem-solving capabilities remains largely unmet in many medical school curricula across Europe. Medical school education, in fact, remains largely anchored to a traditional paradigm of learning a discrete amount of information about pathophysiology principles and illnesses’ descriptions, without worrying about developing the skills necessary to work confidently "on the patient". Digital tools based on macro-and microsimulation, thanks to their flexibility, effectiveness, accuracy and accessibility may make a fundamental contribution to solving this issue, and we want to apply their potential to undergraduate medical students' education. The MEDSKILL school will allow students to:

• Get in touch with digital tools that facilitate the study of anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology and clinical reasoning
• Confront virtual patients/mannequins, interpret their artificial symptoms/signs and make decisions, taking into account the appropriateness of choice, as well as ethical correlates and sustainability
• Mimic clinical situations to test patient communication skills, and simulate the use of diagnostic equipment, team leaders and interventional therapies.

Teaching Methodologies

The MEDSKILLS initiative will deliver both lectures and hands-on lab sessions. Each practical session is preceded by an introductory lesson on the theoretical aspects of the manoeuvres that will be carried out followed by a debriefing session.
The course aims to provide preparation on transthoracic and abdominal ultrasound methods and the main cardiovascular and abdominal diseases. The course is divided into formal theoretical lessons and practical internships in the Simulabo classroom with the use of the Vimedix ultrasound and advanced echocardiography simulator.