MED-NET Conferences 1998, Lille & 1999, Maastricht
Anthology of presentations 5.7.

Problem Based Learning using computer simulations

J.P. Montana, V. Antic (Fribourg, Switzerland) R. Summers, T. Coleman (Jackson, USA)

Problem-based-learning (PBL) has gained increasing success in medical education. We have modified the standard PBL-format by using computer simulations instead of presentations of preset clinical cases on paper. In our computer lab facilities, the student first learns to run a comprehensive model of the human body (quantitative circulatory physiology). The student is then instructed to run specific simulations of known clinical problems.

We have been working on three separate themes:

1. Regulation of blood pressure (renovascular hypertension, arterial haemorrhage)
2. Oxygen transport (high altitude, carbon monoxide poisoning)
3. Electrolyte disorders (mineralocorticoid excess, adrenal insufficiency).

In each case the students must run the model to observe which changes may result from the selected disturbance, and must decide which variables should be followed, as if it were a private patient or an experimental animal. Observation on these variables raises then many new questions, whose answers are found by the students through self-learning and discussed on a separate day in a small group setting. Such an approach teaches the student to make well-defined choices, directs him towards further reading and promoted an integrative understanding of the human body.

ISBN Number 90.805758.1.X

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