Development and Evaluation of a Serious Game for Teaching ICD-10 Diagnosis Coding to Medical Students.

Objective: Assessment of the pedagogical effect and technological acceptance of the serious game, CODIFICO, which has been designed to train medical students in ICD-10 diagnosis coding. Materials and Methods: We designed the serious game, CODIFICO, as an alternative way to teach ICD-10 diagnosis coding to undergraduate medical students. To assess the pedagogical effect of the game, we used the quasiexperimental pretest-posttest design. The participants began by completing a knowledge pretest on Blackboard. After the pretest, the teacher presented the game to the students and invited them to play it for 1 week. Then, the students completed the posttest on Blackboard. We applied the Wilcoxon test to establish the difference between the pretest and posttest. We designed a questionnaire to evaluate the participants' technology acceptance toward the game. Results: Sixty-one undergraduate medical students from a large Colombian private university took part. There was no statistically significant difference between the pretest and the posttest. However, the game had some positive effects on knowledge. The game was well accepted among the participants. Conclusion: The game, CODIFICO, was useful to teach diagnosis determination, not diagnostic coding. Some of the reasons that caused this situation were insufficient attention to the pedagogical theory, excessive reliance on clinical aspects of the medical training, limited resources, and lack of experience at the medical school to design gamification strategies.

A systematic review of serious games in medical education: quality of evidence and pedagogical strategy.

INTRODUCTION: The literature shows an optimistic landscape for the effectiveness of games in medical education. Nevertheless, games are not considered mainstream material in medical teaching. Two research questions that arise are the following: What pedagogical strategies do developers use when creating games for medical education? And what is the quality of the evidence on the effectiveness of games? METHODS: A systematic review was made by a multi-disciplinary team of researchers following the Cochrane Collaboration Guidelines. We included peer-reviewed journal articles which described or assessed the use of serious games or gamified apps in medical education. We used the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI) to assess the quality of evidence in the use of games. We also evaluated the pedagogical perspectives of such articles. RESULTS: Even though game developers claim that games are useful pedagogical tools, the evidence on their effectiveness is moderate, as assessed by the MERSQI score. Behaviourism and cognitivism continue to be the predominant pedagogical strategies, and games are complementary devices that do not replace traditional medical teaching tools. Medical educators prefer simulations and quizzes focused on knowledge retention and skill development through repetition and do not demand the use of sophisticated games in their classrooms. Moreover, public access to medical games is limited. DISCUSSION: Our aim was to put the pedagogical strategy into dialogue with the evidence on the effectiveness of the use of medical games. This makes sense since the practical use of games depends on the quality of the evidence about their effectiveness. Moreover, recognition of said pedagogical strategy would allow game developers to design more robust games which would greatly contribute to the learning process.

Revisión sistemática de juegos serios para la educación médica. Rol del diseño en la efectividad / A Systematic Review about Serious Games for Medical Education. The Role of Effective Design

Introducción: La literatura pedagógica propone los juegos serios (serious games) como herramientas efectivas para el aprendizaje; sin embargo, los estudia como si fueran productos homogéneos que se diferencian solo por la temática. Así, sus diseños no se discuten y se dejan a la discreción de cada profesor-creador. Objetivo: Establecer la relación entre la efectividad en los resultados de aprendizaje y los criterios de diseño de los juegos para la educación médica. Métodos: Revisión sistemática de la literatura de juegos médicos, publicados entre 2011 y 2015 en inglés, español y portugués, siguiendo pautas de la Colaboración Cochrane. Sobre la base de la literatura, se construyó un sistema con 15 criterios de diseños para evaluar los juegos y se estableció una comparación con la efectividad reportada. Resultados: En los 26 artículos finales revisados los resultados de aprendizaje fueron positivos, en general, y los criterios de diseño de los juegos sí afectaron la efectividad en los resultados de aprendizaje. El grado de estos efectos y el nivel de evidencia científica variaron según los criterios de diseño. Conclusiones: La relación encontrada entre el diseño del juego y la efectividad en el aprendizaje debe conducir a desarrollos de juegos serios que potencien las propuestas ludificadas con un uso consciente de los criterios técnicos(AU)

Introduction: The pedagogical literature proposes serious games as effective tools for learning; however, it studies them as if they were homogeneous products that differ only by theme. Thus, their designs are not discussed and are left to the consideration of each teacher-creator. Objective: To establish the relationship between effectiveness in learning outcomes and the criteria for the design of games for medical education. Methods: Systematic review of the literature about medical games and published between 2011 and 2015, in English, Spanish and Portuguese, following the Cochrane Collaboration guidelines. Based on the literature, a system was constructed with 15 design criteria for assessing the games, and a comparison was established with the reported effectiveness. Results: In the 26 final articles that were reviewed, the learning outcomes were generally positive, and the game design criteria did affect the effectiveness of the learning outcomes. The degree of these effects and the level of scientific evidence varied according to the design criteria. Conclusions: The relationship found between game design and learning effectiveness should lead to developments of serious game that enhance the proposals made with a conscious usage of technical criteria(AU)