Phone App To Make Better Doctors

PHILADELPHIA, June 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) is pleased to announce the winner of its Centennial Prize for innovation in the future assessment of health professionals: a team of medical students from the University of Pittsburgh whose proposal, TOPCATS (Trainee-Oriented Patient Communication Assessment System) uses phone app technology to provide crucial patient feedback to medical students and their medical schools. 

The TOPCATS team, made up of third-year students Myung Sun Choi and Jennifer Hu, and first-year students Abby Koff and Devan Patel, receives $5,000 in cash, a pledge that the NBME will evaluate the concept in its new product development process, and an invitation to participate in that process as NBME's Centennial Fellows. If the concept succeeds in all development phases, TOPCATS will become a new tool that will help medical students become better prepared for real life doctor/patient interactions.

The NBME, which creates and administers the United States Medical Licensing Examination® and many other health profession assessments, sponsored the competition as part of its centennial celebration. Entries, submitted by healthcare professionals, students, educators, academicians, and technologists from across the country, were evaluated on:

• The extent to which the idea addressed a need for health professionals in the future
• The potential impact on assessment of health professionals
• The feasibility of the idea developing into a viable, useful product
• The effectiveness and engagement level of the finalist presentation

TOPCATS is a smartphone app-based tool that allows students and patients to evaluate their encounters in real time.  With the initial conception of the app, both the medical student and the patient will receive a survey which asks them to reflect on objective skills (Did the student wash her hands? Did he introduce himself?) and more subjective skills (Did he listen to the patient? Was she empathetic?). After a few patient responses, the student will receive feedback through the app in an anonymous, randomized set of response data. Data on how the cohort of students is doing as a whole can also be sent to the medical school, so administrators can observe trends in teaching areas that may need to be strengthened.

For more information on the NBME and the Centennial Prize, please visit www.nbme.org, and follow us @NBMEnow. 

SOURCE National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME)

Related Links

http://www.nbme.org