A Live Patient Experience in Medical School Can Boost Interest in, and Knowledge of, Rheumatology

1. I learned to truly listen to the patient. They know what is going on with their body, even if the symptoms being described don’t make sense together. It may be something rare or something that is not high on the differential list.
2. I learned to be patient and caring because some patients are going through life-changing diseases, and it is important to always value what they have to say. They need to know that you have their back.
3. If I don’t know the answer to a clinical question or what diagnosis the patient has, it is better to be honest and tell the patient, “I don’t know” than to give them reassurance that it is probably nothing.
4. No matter what specialty you’re in, you can pick up on certain things that other doctors may have missed. I heard today that a pain physician was able to detect some changes that led to a rheumatology referral, which changed this patient’s life for the better.
5. I learned that rheumatology is a very interesting and fulfilling specialty! I had never considered rheumatology as a specialty I would be interested in, but these interactions have changed my mind in that regard.

Are LPEs Effective?

To examine the effectiveness of LPEs, Dr. Cannella and colleagues conducted a study published in 2020 that compared LPEs with other learning modalities for a second-year rheumatology core of 286 students.¹ The other learning modalities included Augenblick (which features pictorial findings of rheumatic disease and case discussions), problem-based learning, a gout racer video game, a rheumatology remedy e-module and a simulation knee injection. Using a five-point Likert scale to rate their effectiveness, the LPE earned a mean effectiveness score of 4.77, followed by 4.21 for Augenblick, 4.11 for problem-based learning, 3.49 for the gout racer video game, 3.49 for the e-module and 3.09 for the simulation knee injection.

Dr. Cannella

In the study, the LPE was the only learning modality among the six perceived by a majority of students to be highly effective.¹

One unique thing about LPE is that in today’s atmosphere of self-directed learning, asynchronous e-learning and gamification, LPE is not well represented in the literature and does not involve technology, “yet it was able to outperform the more widely accepted, technologically advanced, asynchronous and traditional active learning strategies, including problem-based learning,” the study authors wrote.¹

7 Tips for LPEs

Dr. Cannella encourages other medical school/rheumatology programs to consider adding an LPE component to their curricula. Here are a few tips for those setting up LPEs for the first time.