MEDTHINKER: Novel computer-based simulation to assess technical and nontechnical skills using medical content in healthcare providers
The “hidden curriculum” of the medical industry…
Preventable harm in healthcare settings continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality (Panagioti et al. 2019). Besides the obvious harm to patients, these adverse events place financial and emotional burdens on the patient, the provider, and the system. Additionally, health care costs continue to increase faster than GDP, impacting the budgets of federal, state, and city governments; employers; and individuals (Center for Disease Control).
The practice of medicine involves an interplay of technical knowledge and skills as well as nontechnical skills. Nontechnical skills include situational awareness, decision making, communication, and performance under stress. Both technical skills and nontechnical skills are equally important, and we present a novel simulation. MEDTHINKER has specific medical content as well as measures of nontechnical skills, with specific algorithms and metrics designed to capture core competencies of healthcare performance.
