Patient Medical Education Research Articles

Simulated Patient as a Learner: Medical Volunteers Gain Knowledge by Participating in a Wilderness Medicine Training Session.

-A multifaceted approach to wilderness medicine education and training is necessary to provide a high-quality learning experience, often requiring innovative instructional techniques. Using volunteers to act as patients in medical education is a well-established practice that helps teach crucial skills. However, more is needed to know if there is potential knowledge acquisition through participation. This study examined the educational benefits for medical students serving as a simulated patient (SP), hypothesizing that these individuals will improve self-assessed knowledge and confidence and demonstrate improved performance of injury-management skills while participating in a medical education course. -A descriptive feasibility pilot study was conducted with 10 SPs to assess knowledge and skill acquisition. Study participants were evaluated before and after participating as an SP in 2 scenarios involving hemorrhage control and wrist injury assessment and management, with a subjective confidence survey and an objective skill and knowledge demonstration, as measured by a critical action checklist. -The subjects all reported self-assessed knowledge improvement from the pre- to postintervention survey, with an average increase of 17 points. They also demonstrated improved objective skill and knowledge demonstration, with an average increase of 4.6 points for the wrist injury scenario and 2.5 points for the hemorrhage control scenario. -This study demonstrated that volunteer medical students acting as SPs in a medical training course passively acquire knowledge and improve their medical skills and self-perceived confidence. The findings contribute to a broader understanding of medical education, suggesting that participating as SPs offers educational benefits. The results encourage consideration of simulated patient roles as a valuable adjunct to medical education, warranting further scholarly exploration to substantiate and expand on these preliminary findings.

Lessons learned from the experiences of patients with long-term conditions: recommendations for enhancing the undergraduate medical curriculum

ABSTRACT The importance of involving patients in medical education is widely accepted, but their contribution to medical curriculum design is not well documented. Patients have the potential to bring a unique perspective and more refined experience to curriculum development. This applies particularly to those with long-term conditions (LTCs) who have multiple exposures to doctors throughout their healthcare journey. The aim of this study is to explore what views patients with LTCs have on the attributes medical students require to have, in order to provide them with high-quality care. Ten patients with LTCs, encompassing both primary and secondary care over a broad set of demographics, were interviewed by telephone using a semi-structured questionnaire. The interviews were recorded using a digital voice recorder and manually transcribed verbatim onto a Microsoft Word document for thematic analysis using NVIVO software and following Braun and Clarke’s six-phase framework. Five themes have emerged highlighting where the care of LTC patients could be improved: ‘advocacy’; ‘compassion’; ‘the desire to be acknowledged as an individual’”; acknowledgement of their expertise”; and ‘benefits of continuity of care’. The findings make a major contribution to undergraduate and postgraduate clinical training development. They reinforce themes in healthcare which need more emphasis in the medical curriculum, whilst simultaneously highlighting that even well-recognised concepts such as patient-centred holistic care, are not well implemented in the context of actual practice.

The Evolution From Standardized to Virtual Patients in Medical Education.

Standardized patients (SPs) are widely used in medical education to teach clinical skills and provide assessments. SPs allow students to practice history taking, physical exams, and communication in controlled settings. However, SPs have limitations such as fatigue, performance variability, and the inability to simulate certain conditions, which virtual patients (VPs) can address. VPs can address these limitations and offer consistency, scalability, and adaptability. Although VPs are being implemented in research settings, they have the potential to be powerful medical education tools. Advancements in immersive technologies such as virtual reality, haptic feedback, and artificial intelligence (AI) will allow the creation of hyper-realistic, interactive training environments that mimic the complexity of real patient encounters. Medical students will be able to engage with VPs in fully immersive settings, complete with haptic feedback and AI-driven dialogue, allowing for more lifelike diagnostic and procedural experiences. The wider availability of such technologies through web services has implications for global medical education and assessment.

Diverse Integration of Simulated Patients in Medical Education for Communication, Language, and Clinical Skills in Hungary.

Medical education and communication training has been undergoing substantial changes recently in our globalized environment. Multidisciplinary simulation-based methods worldwide focus on improving effective clinical skills including history taking, physical examination, diagnostic skills, critical thinking, therapeutic skills, and others via interactions between medical students, trainees, and patients. Recently, Hungary has joined such global trends. The first simulated patient program in Hungary was developed at the University of Pécs Medical School in 2019 to aid effective patient-interviewing skills in language and communication classes. Under the supervision of linguists, communication specialists and medical professionals, the multidisciplinary program uses lay people to perform as simulated patients while using the languages of Hungarian, German, and English. Our simulated patient program plays a specific role in supporting students to learn languages for medical purposes, aiming to prepare them for handling the medical, linguistic, at the same, time emotional and sociocultural difficulties encountered while taking patient histories. Medical and linguistic experts evaluate student performance, provide feedback, and give tailored instruction so that students can advance their communicative and professional skills. This study discusses working formats and the role of constructive feedback exploring potential advantages and disadvantages, sharing ideas, and proposing recommendations on language- and communication-based integration of simulated patients. In our elective communication courses, undergraduate medical students learn to cope with a variety of patient situations through practicing medical emergencies, misunderstandings, and disagreements in a safe atmosphere provided by the MediSkillsLab. Among the benefits, we should emphasize that any course with a growing number of students can be accommodated by carefully designing the program, which allows for interprofessional collaboration. This program contributes to higher-quality medical education, promoting more skilled and compassionate healthcare specialists.

A cross-sectional study on factors influencing patient participation in undergraduate medical education in a public and private hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa

BackgroundThe active involvement of patients in medical education is a common practice globally. Despite this, there is a global paucity of data on patients’ views on their role in medical education. As such this study aimed to identify factors that influence patient participation in undergraduate medical education in public and private hospitals in Johannesburg.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted, using a 23-question, self-designed, paper questionnaire to collect data on patients’ perceptions of student involvement in their care – with regard to consent, confidentiality, ethics, and patient preferences. Participants were recruited on a voluntary basis in the Departments of Medicine, Surgery, and Gynaecology, at selected hospital sites. Fisher’s Exact and Chi-Square statistical tests were used where appropriate.ResultsTwo hundred and one adult patients, comprised of 150 public sector patients and 51 private sector patients, completed the questionnaire. One hundred and sixty-nine patients (84,1%) were willing to participate in undergraduate medical education and no notable difference between these sectors was demonstrated (p = 0,41). The results further demonstrated that the main factors influencing patient participation in undergraduate medical education across both sectors were (1) the presence of a supervising professional, (2) the perceived degree of invasiveness of a procedure, and (3) the perceived expertise of the student. In addition, data across other key themes such as consent, confidentiality, ethics, and patient preferences and perceptions were elucidated.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that the majority of inpatients across the public and private sectors are willing to participate in undergraduate medical education to facilitate the development of healthcare professionals. It also demonstrated that most patients have a positive experience. However, more measures of quality informed consent need to be instituted to optimise the current role of the South African public health sector, whilst facilitating the development of a similar role for the South African private sector in future clinical education. In addition, further research is necessary to evaluate these findings in a South African context.

Standardized Patients in Medical Education: A Review of the Literature.

The concept of standardized patients (SPs) was first introduced in the 1960s by Dr. Howard Barrows of the University of Southern California and has been applied in medical school education since that time. This practice has allowed medical students to practice skills on live persons who are teachers rather than on real patients, who may be endangered by their emerging skills.Previous studies supported the use of SPs but did not measure whether they improved clinical competence or students' confidence in their skills.This literature reviewevaluated whether current medical education literature supports or refutes the use of SPs compared to other modalities such as simulated patients (SiPs) and virtual reality (VR) in the improvement of student confidence, clinical performance, and interpersonal communication skills.The research questions posed for this review were as follows: do medical students in their first two years of education who have practiced skills using SPs have more self-confidence in their ability to perform skills on real patients than those students who did not use SPs, do medical students in their third and fourth years of medical school have higher clinical competency with sensitive patient examinations after using SPs in their first two years of medical education than those students who did not use SPs, and do medical students who have used SPs for discussing sensitive issues have better interpersonal skills when they encounter real patients in the clinical setting than those who have not used SPs? The methodology for this descriptive, systematic review of the literature was organized using a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flowchart to describe how articles were collected and synthesized to evaluate the variables under study.The results of this study revealed that students learned the most when SPs were used because they were able to teach students the skills that they needed in a safe learning environment. Medical students performing sensitive patient examinations with SPs learned not only how to perform the examinations but also how to improve their communication with patients. Students and residents reported increased confidence and clinical competence when performing new skills with SPs rather than with peer practice, virtual reality, orreal patients in a clinical setting. Although the utilization of SPs has been studied in multiple ways and found to be a powerful tool in the education of undergraduate medical students and interns, there is still much study to be done to address the human needs of real patients. Gaps in this literature included small sample sizes, a lack of standardized assessment tools, and the need to include a multidisciplinary approach that addresses cultural awareness and appreciation.The authors found limited studies analyzing the effect the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had on the use of SPs in medical school education.Continued scientific inquiry in post-pandemicmedical education is an essential component for dissemination as most schools have reintroduced the use of SPs, which strengthens the concept that their use is superior to the other simulation methods used when SPs were not available.

ANALYSIS OF THE BEHAVIOR OF BALANCE VALUES OF COSTS, QUALITY AND COMFORT OF MEDICAL SERVICES DEPENDING ON THE PATIENT'S MEDICAL EDUCATION

Objective of the study. To evaluate the state of surgical services for patients with uterine fibroids and/or ovarian cysts in hospitals in Vinnytsia by the correspondence of the balance values of costs, quality, and comfort of medical services depending on the patient's medical education.
 Materials and methods. The analysis, design, and program of the study are based on the econometric model of D. Dranov and M. Satterthwaite, which relates the balance values of costs, quality, and comfort of health care services to individualized elasticities of demand. The model is empirically specified for the purposes of the study in a proper structural form. On this theoretical basis, we studied the state of the provision of surgical services to patients with uterine fibroids and/or ovarian cysts by a combined (retrospective + prospective) study of the main array, namely, 150 medical records of inpatients of gynecological departments from three medical diagnostic institutions of Vinnytsia hospitalized over a six-year period.
 Results. The behavior of the balance values of costs, quality, and comfort of medical services depending on the patient's medical education was analyzed.
 Conclusions. The hypothesis of the existence of responsiveness, namely, a decrease in the individualized elasticity of demand for price, quality, and comfort due to lack of patient awareness leads to a reduction in the balance values of costs, quality, and comfort, has been previously confirmed. In our opinion, the insufficient reliability of the effects is due solely to the small amount of data. The presence of properly oriented shifts in balance sheet values indicates the organization of inpatient obstetric and gynecological care for the nosologies under consideration that is congruent with the market environment. At the same time, the organization of inpatient obstetric and gynecological care for the considered nosologies meets the conditions of optimization, on the basis of which a theoretical model and a system of structural dependencies were developed, and therefore, they offer marketable and cost-effective solutions.

Advocating Active and Meaningful Involvement of Patients in the Delivery of Medical Education

The onus of knowledge acquisition and learning has demonstrated a paradigm shift in the field of medical education. The present review has been carried out to explore and understand the role of patient involvement in the training of medical students. An extensive search of all materials related to the topic was carried out in the PubMed search engine, and a total of 26 articles were selected based on the suitability with the current review objectives. The involvement of patients in medical education has been linked with a wide range of proven benefits and learning progression. The patients can discharge multiple roles, namely a teacher, developing curriculum, assessor, and someone who can select students for the course. The role of actively involving patients in the teaching process is bound to have some challenges and barriers considering the different aspects in heterogeneous settings. The ideal approach to involve patients in medical education has to start with sensitizing the faculty members and the medical students about the benefits that can be derived out of such clinical interactions. The successful implementation will essentially require adequate resource support and faculty involvement. To conclude, the patient involvement in medical training is not a new practice, but the ground reality is that we are falling short to optimize the benefits of the overall practice. The need of the hour is to adopt a systematic approach and structure the overall program, so that we can derive tangible benefits out of the same and prepare the future generation of doctors in the delivery of patient-centered care.

Utility of telephone visits at an urban safety-net hospital during 2020: A retrospective review.

ObjectiveDuring COVID‐19, otolaryngology clinics rapidly implemented telehealth programs in accordance with social distancing guidelines and institutional policies. Our objectives are to evaluate the usefulness of telephone audio visits for underserved patients seeking otolaryngological care at an urban safety‐net hospital and identify patient factors associated with telephone visit attendance.MethodsIn a retrospective review of all adult telephone visits in 2020, we compared the demographics and visit characteristics of patients who attended telehealth versus in‐person visits and patients who attended versus missed telehealth visits. Univariable and multivariable regressions were utilized to identify predictors of missing telehealth visits.ResultsWe identified 318 telehealth encounters completed by 254 patients (72.8% were of racial/ethnic minority; 76.3% had low‐income, need‐based insurances; 43.7% had limited English proficiency). The most common chief complaints were related to head and neck oncology (n = 85, 26.7%), otology/neurotology (n = 74, 23.3%), and general otolaryngology (n = 69, 21.7%). The following actions were executed during telephone visits: behavioral and/or medication patient education (n = 152, 47.8%); sharing testing/imaging/tumor board results (n = 125, 39.3%); referrals to another department (n = 103, 32.4%); rendering a new diagnosis (n = 98, 30.8%); changing medications (n = 60, 18.9%). Less than half of telephone visits (46.2%) resulted in in‐person follow‐up, most commonly for in‐person exams. The distribution of race/ethnicity differed between attended in‐person appointments versus telephone visits (p = .01), but race and ethnicity were not significant predictors of telephone visit attendance.ConclusionDespite limited diagnostic capabilities, telephone audio visits can be an effective and accessible tool for providing continuity and advancing care in socially disadvantaged patients.Level of evidenceIV.

GPs education about organ donation: what factors influence the success?

According to the new legislation on organ donation in Germany, general practitioners (GPs) should regularly inform and educate their patients about organ donation from March 1, 2022. This is because of the persistently low organ donation rate in Germany. So far, there is a lack of information about the factors influencing the medical education of patients regarding organ donation provided by GPs. GPs were surveyed via a web-based questionnaire in November and December 2021. 215 data sets have been utilized. GPs see themselves in charge for educating people about organ donation (86%). However, most of them invest little time in educating patients. 75% of GPs think that there is no time available for educational talks in the daily routine and 80% perceive difficulties in raising the issue of organ donation due to social taboos. Only 24% of GPs are aware of the new legislation. Only half of the respondents feel sufficiently informed to provide information about organ donation. On average, GPs consider a reimbursement of about 40 euros to be appropriate. GPs have not dealt much with the topic of organ donation and need more comprehensive information for the education of patients. GPs require more time to accommodate education in everyday life. Younger citizens can only be reached by GPs to a limited extent. This group must be addressed by other means.

The Reality of Collaboration between Teachers and Simulated Patients in Medical Education:

The Reality of Collaboration between Teachers and Simulated Patients in Medical Education:

Shared Decision-Making With a Virtual Patient in Medical Education: Mixed Methods Evaluation Study.

BackgroundShared decision-making (SDM) is a process in which clinicians and patients work together to select tests, treatments, management, or support packages based on clinical evidence and the patient’s informed preferences. Similar to any skill, SDM requires practice to improve. Virtual patients (VPs) are simulations that allow one to practice a variety of clinical skills, including communication. VPs can be used to help professionals and students practice communication skills required to engage in SDM; however, this specific focus has not received much attention within the literature. A multiple-choice VP was developed to allow students the opportunity to practice SDM. To interact with the VP, users chose what they wanted to say to the VP by choosing from multiple predefined options, rather than typing in what they wanted to say.ObjectiveThis study aims to evaluate a VP workshop for medical students aimed at developing the communication skills required for SDM.MethodsPreintervention and postintervention questionnaires were administered, followed by semistructured interviews. The questionnaires provided cohort-level data on the participants’ views of the VP and helped to inform the interview guide; the interviews were used to explore some of the data from the questionnaire in more depth, including the participants’ experience of using the VP.ResultsThe interviews and questionnaires suggested that the VP was enjoyable and easy to use. When the participants were asked to rank their priorities in both pre- and post-VP consultations, there was a change in the rank position of respecting patient choices, with the median rank changing from second to first. Owing to the small sample size, this was not analyzed for statistical significance. The VP allowed the participants to explore a consultation in a way that they could not with simulated or real patients, which may be part of the reason that the VP was suggested as a useful intervention for bridging from the early, theory-focused years of the curriculum to the more patient-focused ones later.ConclusionsThe VP was well accepted by the participants. The multiple-choice system of interaction was reported to be both useful and restrictive. Future work should look at further developing the mode of interaction and explore whether the VP results in any changes in observed behavior or practice.

Virtual patients reflecting the clinical reality of primary care \u2013 a useful tool to improve cultural competence

BackgroundVirtual patients are educational tools that may be described as case-based interactive computer simulations of clinical scenarios. In terms of learning outcomes, improved clinical reasoning skills and knowledge acquisition have been shown. For further exploring the role of virtual patients in medical education, a greater focus on context-specific cases, combined with suitable educational activities, has been suggested. A knowledge gap has been identified in cultural competence in primary care. As primary care physicians are often the main medical providers for patients with refugee backgrounds, they would probably benefit from improved training focusing on how to apply cultural competence in everyday work. Using virtual patient cases, as a complement to clinical training, may be one way forward. The aim of this study was therefore to explore a learner perspective on the educational use of a virtual patient system designed to contribute to training in cultural competence in a primary care context.MethodsThree virtual patient cases portraying patients with refugee backgrounds were developed. The cases addressed various issues and symptoms common in primary care consultations, while also incorporating intercultural aspects. The system also provided the informants with individualized feedback. Primary care physicians and medical students were invited to test the cases and participate in an interview about their experience. Data was analyzed using qualitative content analysis.ResultsThe analysis generated the theme Virtual patients might help improve cultural competence in physicians and medical students by complementing knowledge gained through the informal curriculum. Informants at different educational levels found it suitable as a tool for introducing the topic and for reflecting on one’s own consultations. It could also compensate for the predominant informal manner of learning cultural competence, described by the informants.ConclusionsVirtual patients could be useful for gaining cultural competence in a primary care context. Advantages that could benefit learners at both pre- and post-graduate levels are decreased dependence on the informal curriculum and being presented with an illustrative way of how cultural competence may be applied in the consultation.

Metadiscourse, materiality and morality in communication skills training with simulated patients.

Simulated patients (also known as standardized patients) are commonly employed by institutions of medical education to train medical students and assess their communication skills. This article demonstrates that such patients are not translational devices that enact prima facie standards of communication skills as laid out by the institutions that use them, but rather metadiscursively transform communication practices. This is shown via a case study that closely examines a series of interactions between a simulated patient and a third-year medical student during a practice exam designed for the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 2 Clinical Skills. I use discourse analysis to show how communication skills are transformed in three practices: (1) simulated consultations between standardized patients and medical students; (2) spoken evaluations offered by standardized patients after simulated consultations between standardized patients and medical students; and (3) written evaluations offered by standardized patients in assessment forms. In particular, by attending to how a simulated patient makes the act of draping the patient a relevant communication skill, I explicate the material elements and moral implications of clinical communication. Finally, I consider the instructive role simulated patients play in medical education and how their standards build on and often stand in contrast to communication skills techniques. I conclude by making practical suggestions for communication skills training with simulated patients in medical education.

The (future) doctor will see you now: Piloting a longitudinal virtual patient in medical education, simulating general practice

Introduction Virtual patients provide numerous learning opportunities for medical students, yet only support one-off patient interactions. To emulate general practice, allowing multiple encounters with a single patient, a new longitudinal virtual patient (LVP) was developed. Methods The LVP was integrated into 2nd year at a graduate-entry medical school, in the 2019/2020 academic year. Students were asked about their prior experience and expectations of LVPs, before they engaged with two consultations and one results session. Data were collected from this survey and from the engagement with the LVP. Feedback was collected and thematically grouped. Results Survey responses indicated that 1.7% (2/120) had previous experience with virtual patients, and the majority expected the LVP to make a difference to their clinical reasoning. Out of the 142 students engaged with the LVP, 53% completed over 75% of the work. Informal feedback arose around accessibility, professional learning and development, and engagement with the LVP module. Discussion The data indicate that LVPs are agreeable to medical students, with good engagement and positive reports of clinical learning. Conclusion Future work exploring reasons of engagement or lack of, will support refinement of the LVP to accommodate the learning needs of the medical students.

Virtual patient simulation method for learning and assessment in cardiology field

Virtual patient simulation (VPS) is an online computer simulation system that contains patients' clinical situation to train and realistically assess clinical abilities with supplemental animation, demonstration of anatomy, ECG tracing, etc. It can be used for teaching, learning, and assessment supports learning. Until now, it is difficult to ascertain how many VPS systems have been used today in the world, both for learning and assessment, especially in cardiology medicine field. We searched for all research using the term "virtual patient in medical education, virtual patient in cardiology & virtual patient simulation in cardiology" in the title or research abstract from 2014 until 2019. In this current review, we will describe the use of VPS for learning and assessment purposes in cardiology medicine field.Â

Patients as teachers and arts-based reflection in surgical clerkship: A preliminary exploration

Background Involving patients in medical education as teachers is not a novel approach, yet it has not been widely adopted by undergraduate surgical curricula in Canada. The Patients as Teachers initiative in surgery (PAT) program, with an arts-based reflection assignment, was developed for surgical clerks with the goals of emphasizing patient-centredness in surgical practice, humanistic aspects of medicine, and to counterbalance the commonplace emphasis on technical competency in surgery. Methods Qualitative data was collected exploring the question: What was the experience and impact of the PAT program on patient teachers and students? Patient teachers (n = 5) were invited to participate in one-on-one interviews and students (n = 46) were invited to participate in focus groups at the end of the program. Results Findings converged around two main themes: what students/patient teachers valued about the PAT program and what they perceived was learned. While patient teachers felt a sense of emotional healing and appreciated a chance to contribute to medical education, students valued having protected time to learn in depth from the patient teachers. Students also begrudgingly came to appreciate the arts-based reflection assignment. Conclusion By bringing patient voice to the forefront and encouraging reflection, the PAT program emphasized to students the compassionate and humanistic side of surgical care. Future studies could examine the mechanisms by which learning occurs and long-term impacts.

Patient-centred medicine: The use of expert patients in medical education

Patient-centred medicine (PCM) involves looking at more than just a disease and how to treat it. It has evolved from the realisation that all patients are different physiologically, psychologically, emotionally, and socially, and it therefore encompasses all of these domains in its application. The mainstay of this approach is the promotion of a mutual relationship between patient and doctor that involves creating a secure environment to allow for open dialogue. By learning to listen to patients, and exploring other causes of disease other than physiological ones, doctors are able to provide a holistic approach to treatment. Patients are also actively encouraged to participate in the decision making process by adding their ideas, concerns and expectations. This negotiation allows for flexibility and individualisation of each treatment plan that is tailored to suit each individual patient. In essence, PCM encourages concordance: the agreement between doctor and patient on how to proceed towards a common goal. It is therefore important to teach medical students about PCM as early on in their medical education as possible. This will give them time to hone skills in communication so that they can better understand and explore their patient’s circumstances as well be aware of other domains that may require support. But how can medical schools effectively teach their students PCM? Here we suggest the use of expert patients as a beneficial method for promoting PCM in medical school curriculums as students have the opportunity to gain first hand knowledge of what a patient with a specific disease actually feels, what impact it has on their lives and those around them, and what support they find lacking or useful.

Humanising medicine: teaching on tri-morbidity using expert patient narratives in medical education

ABSTRACTExpert patients have recognised benefits for both students and patients in medical education. However, marginalised patients such as homeless patients are less likely to participate. Learning from such individuals is crucial for future doctors, who can, in turn, aid their inclusion in society and improve access to health care. A ‘humanising medicine’ lecture was delivered to Year Four medical students at Norwich Medical School. The lecture utilised narratives from patients with experience of homelessness and tri-morbidity (physical and mental health problems and substance abuse). We used a qualitative approach to evaluate this teaching and understand the experience of both students and patients. Students were asked to complete questionnaires, whereas expert patients were interviewed. We thematically analysed data using an inductive approach. Students reported an increased understanding, empathy and preparedness to consult with marginalised patients. Expert patients described positive feelings about their involvement, giving something back, and the therapeutic benefits of telling their story. We found that including marginalised patients in medical education had positive benefits for both students and patients. Our findings suggest that expert patient narratives are valuable in medical education particularly in teaching and learning about medical complexity and tri-morbidity.

Simulated patients in medical education - a survey on the current status in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Objective: In German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), simulated patients (SPs) have been a fixture for years and are used in teaching and examinations. As part of ongoing methodological standardization efforts and to support current and future faculty and curriculum developments, this exploratory study systematically investigates how and under what framework and conditions SPs are currently used in German-speaking countries.Methodology: The online questionnaire developed in cooperation with the Committee for Simulated Patients of the Society for Medical Education comprises 58 questions covering the organization and administration, size and design of the SP pool, general conditions and minimum standards for the assignments of the SPs. All medical faculties from Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland were invited to participate in the survey and a descriptive data analysis was performed. Results: 38 responses from 45 faculties were included in the evaluation of the survey (response rate: 84.4%). Most SP programs are affiliated with the Office of the Dean of Studies and skills labs or training centers and funded by faculty resources. Both the working hours in the SP programs and the qualifications of the employees vary extensively. The same applies to the number and average age of the employed SPs. On average each faculty uses 1,290 SP hours per year (min=45, max=6,500). The majority of SPs are used in a teaching environment, together with lecturers. At all sites, SPs provide feedback to students. This is always based on a uniform standard. All SPs receive training, which predominantly focuses on playing their role and giving feedback.Discussion: There are a variety of SP programs in German-speaking countries. While there are a few clear similarities (for example, feedback from SPs), many organizational and methodological aspects are handled differently. Although this allows innovation and flexibility, it also weakens the didactic SP method in its standardization and thus in the comparability of quality. A certain degree of standardization and high methodical quality is of great importance, especially in scientific and faculty internal discussions and with a view to the use of SPs in high-stakes examinations which must be improved in the future.