i-Human Patients, Inc. Forms Consortium of Faculty from Eight Medical Schools to Develop Interactive Online Educational Content

MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif., Jan. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- i-Human Patients, Inc. today announced that the American Medical Association (AMA) will sponsor the development of simulated, interactive patient encounters for its i-Human Patients^® online platform.  The AMA will provide a $100,000 grant to support the authoring of internal medicine cases. In an effort initiated and overseen by global medical education thought leader Vinay Kumar, Senior Editor and Author of Robbins Pathology and Chair, Department of Pathology, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, faculty at eight prominent medical schools will help support the development effort.

The faculty leading the development effort include:

• Scott Stern, M.D., Assistant Dean for Technology and Innovation, University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine
• Deepthiman Gowda, M.D., Course Director of Foundations of Clinical Medicine-Tutorials and Stephen Canfield, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
• Yoon Kang, M.D., Director of the Margaret and Ian Smith Clinical Skills Center, Weill Cornell Medical College
• John Thomas, Ph.D., Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine
• Joseph Rencic, M.D., Associate Professor Site Director of Medical Student Clerkship, Tufts Medical Center
• Keith Boyd, M.D., Senior Associate Dean for Education, Rush University Medical Center's Rush Medical College
• Avery Ellis, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Associate Dean for Medical Curriculum, University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
• Feroza Daroowala, M.D., MPH, Associate Chair for Undergraduate Education, Department of Medicine, Stony Brook University School of Medicine

"With the AMA's support, we will work with faculty at some of the nation's top medical schools to deliver interactive medical education content that students can access via the Internet on personal computers and mobile networked devices," said Craig Knoche, President of i-Human Patients, Inc. "Students can better learn the fundamentals of clinical reasoning and basic science disciplines when they augment the physical classroom with a 'virtual classroom' where they can learn, review and practice at their own pace."

"The American Medical Association is funding the development of medical school cases and other interactive content for the i-Human Patients educational services platform because we see a need to accelerate student training in patient assessment and diagnostic skills," said Dr. James Madera, CEO/EVP of the AMA. "One of the AMA's recently announced core strategic goals is to transform undergraduate medical education, and the i-Human Patients initiative is a good example of the type of innovation needed to help drive efficient and effective learning."

"The traditional passive approach using fact-based lectures in medical schools is not long lasting. Given the explosion of new information, it is also virtually impossible for a medical student in 2013 to learn all that he or she may encounter in practice," said Dr. Vinay Kumar. "Today's emphasis in medical education must focus on developing competencies rather than just learning facts. Simulated patients help students develop their assessment and diagnostic skills."

i-Human Patients is a web-based service for medical students that simulates a patient visit. Students use i-Human Patients to interview and examine animated patients, order/review diagnostic tests, develop diagnostic hypotheses, and create a treatment plan. Students receive online guidance and comprehensive feedback at every step of the learning process. Thus, it provides a comprehensive learning tool that integrates clinical experience much earlier into medical education, helps students develop patient assessment and diagnostic reasoning skills, and prepares students for their apprenticeship training with real patients.

Additionally, the service provides a clinical context for learning the basic sciences, including physiology, anatomy, histology, pathology, and pathophysiology. Faculty can review individual and/or group student performance. i-Human Patients contains a point-and-click authoring system to create new cases and exercises, which can be published under the Creative Commons Licensing model. i-Human Patients enables objective, scalable, simultaneous 24x7 training in or outside of class across an entire medical school, and provides students the breadth and depth of patient encounters they need to better develop and refine their skills.

More information on i-Human Patients is available at www.i-human.com.

About i-Human Patients, Inc.
i-Human Patients, Inc. is a designer and developer of "virtual" medical training products and services including its flagship i-Human Patients simulated patient service. i-Human Patients, Inc. is based in Mammoth Lakes, California, and operates a development subsidiary, i-Human Medical Education Private Limited, in Chennai, India.

i-Human Patients is a registered trademark of Summit Performance Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of i-Human Patients, Inc.

SOURCE i-Human Patients, Inc.