Medical Students Meet User Driven Health Care for Patient Centered Learning in Clinical Medicine

Patient-centered learning and participatory research are emerging movements in the transformation of primary healthcare and research participation. In recent years this focus has extended to the utilization of User Driven Health Care (UDHC) networks for patient centered learning in medical education. Technology now makes it possible for patients, medical students, and providers to communicate through the Interneton a secure platform. Student authors experiencing this new brush with technology-supported, patient centered learning experience share how participation in a User Driven Health Care online education experience informed their learning and incited them to develop an interest in evidence based knowledge. They developed a survey tool and conducted interviews over the Internet to report on the experiences of others within the network. The findings were largely positive although some students did not feel the reality of the connection to an actual patient. Others report enjoying the experience and being enriched through the interaction, but, at the same time, expressed doubts whether this was a sustainable way to learn given the volume of information a student has to master to attain to the level of a practicing physician