Game-based Learning to Provide Exposure to Specialty Fields

Phenomenon Games and gamification in medical education have been purported to improve learning outcomes, learner satisfaction, and even patient outcomes. Pulm Ex is a mobile app-based game with rare and challenging general and interventional pulmonology patient scenarios. Our hypothesis was that medical students exposed to this game would show increased interest in procedural-based specialties and enhance their understanding of relevant medical concepts from their formal education. Approach Twenty-nine second-year medical students were randomly assigned into control or intervention groups. Both groups completed a pre and post-survey about their career interests, habits, and ability to recognize pulmonary pathology. Findings Compared to control, the intervention group reported a significant increase in knowledge and skill acquisition (p < 0.01, p < 0.003) as well as career interest (p = 0.04). Students reported that the virtual cases helped them understand the course material (60%) and enjoyed their experience with the app (80%). Insights Game-based learning offers students an opportunity to engage in the content that they are learning about in class in a novel way that has the potential to enhance their pre-clinical knowledge, increase their confidence to manage future patients, and may influence their career interests.