Clinical Decision Support at the Point-of-Order Entry: An Education Simulation Pilot with Medical Students

Rationale and objectives: We have been called to reform radiology undergraduate medical education (UME) curricula. Clinically available clinical decision support provides an opportunity to improve education regarding appropriate imaging utilization, patient safety, and cost-effective care.

Material and methods: We created an education simulation portal utilizing integrated clinical decision support. The portal was then piloted with 34 volunteer medical students at our institution in a blended learning environment. A program assessment was performed utilizing the results from a qualitative survey, pre-test, and post-test.

Results: The large majority of medical students felt this supplemental education resource should be included in our UME curriculum (85.29%). All students perceived value in the education simulation portal. The students performed significantly better on the post-test in multiple categories (overall P <.0001), including Choosing Wisely topics (P = .0207).

Conclusions: Based on our program assessment from this pilot program, we believe this innovative educational resource has significant potential to fill curricular gaps in radiology UME curricula. This platform is scalable and can be further customized to fill needs across the continuum of medical education.