Background <p>The assessment of clinical reasoning in health trainees is vital yet poses challenges. We tracked the eye movements of participants while they were reviewing a neurological case with the goal of finding behavioral evidence to improve health education.</p> Methods <p>Eleven medical students and seventeen expert physicians were required to read a neurological case within a 150-second timeframe. The case included descriptive text, a brain CT scan, and an electrocardiogram (ECG). Participants completed a multiple-choice questions (MCQs) test after reading the case. Eye movements of participants in case reading on eleven patient-related information areas (PRIAs) were compared between experts and novices, contrasted with the remaining areas.</p> Results <p>Experts spent significantly more time fixating on PRIAs during case reading than novices (42.1% vs. 29.2%, adjusted <i>p</i> = 0.010). Experts demonstrated significantly fewer gaze shifts between Text and CT images (2.0 times) and between CT and ECG images (2.4 times) compared to novices (6.2 and 5.4 times), with adjusted p-values of 0.002 and 0.019, respectively. A positive correlation was found between the fixation rate on PRIAs and MCQs outcome (<i>r</i> = 0.402, <i>p</i> = 0.034).</p> Conclusion <p>Eye-tracking provides rich and reliable data reflecting physicians’ ability to gather patient-relevant information during patient assessment.</p>

错误:搜索内容不能为空,请输入英文关键词
错误:关键词超出字数限制,请精简
高级检索

Quantify difference between physicians and medical students in clinical reasoning: evidence from eye-tracking

  • Lijun Sun,
  • Yao Zhang,
  • Bin Zheng

摘要

Background

The assessment of clinical reasoning in health trainees is vital yet poses challenges. We tracked the eye movements of participants while they were reviewing a neurological case with the goal of finding behavioral evidence to improve health education.

Methods

Eleven medical students and seventeen expert physicians were required to read a neurological case within a 150-second timeframe. The case included descriptive text, a brain CT scan, and an electrocardiogram (ECG). Participants completed a multiple-choice questions (MCQs) test after reading the case. Eye movements of participants in case reading on eleven patient-related information areas (PRIAs) were compared between experts and novices, contrasted with the remaining areas.

Results

Experts spent significantly more time fixating on PRIAs during case reading than novices (42.1% vs. 29.2%, adjusted p = 0.010). Experts demonstrated significantly fewer gaze shifts between Text and CT images (2.0 times) and between CT and ECG images (2.4 times) compared to novices (6.2 and 5.4 times), with adjusted p-values of 0.002 and 0.019, respectively. A positive correlation was found between the fixation rate on PRIAs and MCQs outcome (r = 0.402, p = 0.034).

Conclusion

Eye-tracking provides rich and reliable data reflecting physicians’ ability to gather patient-relevant information during patient assessment.