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. 2017 Jul 25:8:505-512.
doi: 10.2147/AMEP.S138380. eCollection 2017.

Initial construct validity evidence of a virtual human application for competency assessment in breaking bad news to a cancer patient

Timothy C Guetterman  1 , Frederick W Kron  1 , Toby C Campbell  2 , Mark W Scerbo  3 , Amy B Zelenski  4 , James F Cleary  5 , Michael D Fetters  1
Affiliations

Initial construct validity evidence of a virtual human application for competency assessment in breaking bad news to a cancer patient

Timothy C Guetterman et al. Adv Med Educ Pract. .

Abstract

Background: Despite interest in using virtual humans (VHs) for assessing health care communication, evidence of validity is limited. We evaluated the validity of a VH application, MPathic-VR, for assessing performance-based competence in breaking bad news (BBN) to a VH patient.

Methods: We used a two-group quasi-experimental design, with residents participating in a 3-hour seminar on BBN. Group A (n=15) completed the VH simulation before and after the seminar, and Group B (n=12) completed the VH simulation only after the BBN seminar to avoid the possibility that testing alone affected performance. Pre- and postseminar differences for Group A were analyzed with a paired t-test, and comparisons between Groups A and B were analyzed with an independent t-test.

Results: Compared to the preseminar result, Group A's postseminar scores improved significantly, indicating that the VH program was sensitive to differences in assessing performance-based competence in BBN. Postseminar scores of Group A and Group B were not significantly different, indicating that both groups performed similarly on the VH program.

Conclusion: Improved pre-post scores demonstrate acquisition of skills in BBN to a VH patient. Pretest sensitization did not appear to influence posttest assessment. These results provide initial construct validity evidence that the VH program is effective for assessing BBN performance-based communication competence.

Keywords: clinical competence; empathy; health communication; informatics; verbal behavior.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure FWK serves as president and MDF has stock options in Medical Cyberworlds, Inc, the entity receiving Small Business Innovation Research I grant funds for this project. The University of Michigan Conflict of Interest Office considered the potential for conflict of interest and concluded that no formal management plan was required. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.

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