Patient care via video consultations: piloting and S.W.O.T. analysis of a family medicine digitally synchronous seminar for medical students

Background: Video consultations can complement primary care patient care, but they can also pose challenges for the physicians involved. A need exists to familiarize medical students with the specifics of video consultations. This paper presents the concept and testing of a digitally synchronous distance seminar in which medical students practice and work through the performance of video consultations as an aid to family physicians activity in a patient-oriented manner. The aim of the evaluation was to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (S.W.O.T.) of the teaching concept. Methods: Within the seminar, 12 students carried out video consultations independently under medical supervision, observed the conversations of their fellow students and processed the experiences in the group. The seminar consisted of two elements: A) The whole group of students and teachers was video consulted in a family practice. B) A small group performed a videoconsultation with connection to the home environment of a patient.The evaluation by the students was done by two questionnaires (pre/post), which were analyzed with descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis. The S.W.O.T. analysis was elaborated by the author team based on the results of the questionnaires and interviews with the teachers. Results: The students learned the limits and possibilities of teleconsultations and deepened their family medical knowledge. The pilot project has strengthened the interest in video consultations among many participants. Patient contact and focused work were seen as strengths of the tested learning model. Above all, technical difficulties and the time required were mentioned as weaknesses. The seminar should also be held after the COVID-19 pandemic. It would bring the chance to involve especially students with multiple workloads in patient teaching. The risks lie in the fact that it still has to be integrated into the curriculum and there are few personnel resources for the organization. Conclusions: The learning model familiarizes medical students with competences in family medical patient care using video communication. Various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threads of the learning concept can be weighted differently. Hereby, project groups can decide individually if they want to integrate the learning concept in their curriculum and which further improvements are necessary.