Clinical Encounters: Alan

Learn By Doing: Clinical Encounters: Alan is a challenging, branched-path educational game for medical and other health professional students focusing on the evaluation of alcohol use and appropriate interventions. Within a simulated patient encounter, you will experience the short-term and long-term impact of your clinical choices. This case is centered around Alan Baker, who comes in worried that a mole may be cancerous. In this clinical simulation, you will make choices as Mr. Baker's primary care provider and experience outcomes based on the choices you make. You will be challenged to: ~ Develop a doctor-patient alliance with Ms. Lee, one with mutual candor and trust. ~ Recommend diagnostic procedures and identify any other medical problems you uncover. ~ Discuss a health concern discovered during the appointment that is not related to his chief complaint and determine an appropriate response. You will complete typical steps of a patient encounter and receive feedback after each step: ~ Review case history ~ Complete an evaluation, diagnosis, and brief intervention ~ Make a plan of care for your patient Feedback is color-coded to let you know whether you made the best selection, a less than ideal selection, or an incorrect selection. With the ability to retry a section or continue down paths to see impacts of different decisions, you will learn by doing without causing real-world negative outcomes. Who We Are: The Clinical Encounters: Alcohol suite of cases was developed by Clinical Tools, Inc. through an NIAAA grant (#R43AA020456 / #R44AA020456). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Our company is a diverse group with expertise in medicine, psychology, public health, basic sciences, programming, project and program management, gaming, information technology and communications. We create scalable, usable, and broadly available online education and training to improve the ability of current and future health care providers to care for patients to ultimately improve health outcomes nationwide. We specifically: ~ Deliver skills to professionals that are needed to improve their current/future practice. ~ Improve competence, performance, and patient outcomes. ~ Promote best practices and evidence-based treatment. ~ Train by interactive scenario-based clinical challenges. ~ Create without funding from pharmaceutical or other industry sources. ~ Empower group leaders to create a unique solution, identify problems, ensure progress, and enhance success. Clinical Tools, Inc. provides continuing education for physicians, nurses, physician assistants, and substance use counselors. We have received Small Business Innovative Research grant awards from the NIH and other federal programs. Clinical Tools is committed to quality online medical education in order to enhance the abilities of current and future health professionals.