Benefits of gamification in medical education

Abstract

Medical education is changing at a fast pace. Students attend medical school with a high degree of technological literacy and a desire for a diverse educational experience. As a result, a growing number of medical schools are incorporating technology-enhanced active learning and multimedia education tools into their curriculum. Gamified training platforms include educational games, mobile medical apps, and virtual patient scenarios. We provide a systematic review of what is meant by gamification in this era. Specific educational games, mobile apps, and virtual simulations that may be used for preclinical and clinical training have been discovered and classified. The available data were presented in terms of the recognized platforms for medical education's possible benefits. Virtual patient simulations have been shown to enhance learning results in general. Gamification could improve learning, engagement, and cooperation by allowing for real-world application. They may also help with promoting risk-free healthcare decision-making, remote learning, learning analytics, and quick feedback. We account for Preclinical training which included 5 electronic games and 4 mobile apps, while clinical training included 5 electronic games, 10 mobile applications, and 12 virtual patient simulation tools. There were additionally nine more gamified virtual environment training products that were not commercially accessible. Many of these studies have shown that utilizing gamified media in medical education may confer advantages. This collection of hyperlinked resources may be utilized by medical students, practitioners, and instructors at all levels.

Keywords: education; gamification; medical; strategies; teaching-learning; tools.