Second-year medical students at UNMC are playing a video game to learn how to diagnose and treat gout.
Amy Cannella, assistant professor of internal medicine at UNMC, said the video game was developed through a grant collaboration with UNO.
She said they were trying to come up with innovative teaching methods for today’s learners. Cannella said traditional lecture and exams still work well, but they also wanted to add more novel educational techniques.
She explained video games are a great way to learn because they have motivational factors, but don’t give that fear of failure like more traditional learning techniques…
"And we chose gout because it’s incredibly common, up to 4-5% of the population has it. It carries tremendous morbidity. These people really suffer. And it can be managed in primary care but it’s frequently mismanaged. And it’s really got great rules for how you treat it and how you diagnose it.”
Students were polled when the class was over to get their thoughts about the game.
Cannella said students indicated they enjoyed learning the material more using the video game than the traditional methods.
She said the hope is that by offering more novel memory tools, students will retain knowledge longer than the two weeks until they take their exam.
Canella said that will translate into better care for their patients in the long run.
Anyone interested in learning more about gout can download and play the game at gout.ist.unomaha.edu.