Trial reportBMC medical education2015
Cost-effectiveness of peer role play and standardized patients in undergraduate communication training.
Trial report in BMC medical education, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pooled it
- Interventions for improving medical students' interpersonal communication in medical consultations.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Effects of a Generative AI Virtual Patient on Serious Illness Communication Skills: Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR medical education · 2026Trial
- Enhancing Clinical Competencies Through Peer Role-Play in Oncology Graduate Students: Mixed Methods Study.JMIR medical education · 2025Trial
- Web-Based AI-Driven Virtual Patient Simulator Versus Actor-Based Simulation for Teaching Consultation Skills: Multicenter Randomized Crossover Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Trial
- Utility of Generative Artificial Intelligence for Japanese Medical Interview Training: Randomized Crossover Pilot Study.JMIR medical education · 2025Trial
- Effect of two teaching methods on nursing students' acquisition of patient-centered communication competence in older people care: a cluster randomized trial.Frontiers in public health · 2024Trial
- Student standardized patients versus occupational standardized patients for improving clinical competency among TCM medical students: a 3-year prospective randomized study.BMC medical education · 2023Trial
- Adapting the Serious Illness Conversation communication training workshop from the Western to an Asian context in Singapore.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- AI-powered simulated patients with automated feedback for enhancing headache history-taking skills: a convergent mixed-methods study.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Educator perspectives on costs and cost-conscious decision-making in health professions education: a Q-Method study.Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice · 2026Article
- Scaling Multimodal Agentic AI in Medical Education: Multisite Cross-Sectional Study of Simulation Effectiveness in Primary Care.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Article
- Implementing a competency-based acupuncture training program in Korean Medicine education.PloS one · 2026Article
- Teaching Personalized Doctor-Patient Communication with AI: PerTRAIN - a Prototype for Interpersonally Responsive Virtual Patients in Medical Education.Perspectives on medical education · 2026Article
- OSCEai: personalized interactive learning for undergraduate medical education.Canadian medical education journal · 2025Article
- Comparison of teacher-standardized patients and peer role-play in assessing medical students' history-taking skills.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- ECOSBot: a multicenter validation pilot study of a generative AI tool for OSCE-based nephrology training.Clinical kidney journal · 2025Article
- Harnessing Innovative Technologies to Train Nurses in Suicide Safety Planning With Hospital Patients: Formative Acceptability Evaluation of an eLearning Continuing Education Training.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- Medical Students' Confidence After "CardioSim": A Low-Fidelity, Peer Role-Play Simulation.Cureus · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe few studies directly comparing the methodological approach of peer role play (RP) and standardized patients (SP) for the delivery of communication skills all suggest that both methods are effective. In this study we calculated the costs of both methods (given comparable outcomes) and are the first to generate a differential cost-effectiveness analysis of both methods.
methodsMedical students in their prefinal year were randomly assigned to one of two groups receiving communication training in Pediatrics either with RP (N = 34) or 19 individually trained SP (N = 35). In an OSCE with standardized patients using the Calgary-Cambridge Referenced Observation Guide both groups achieved comparable high scores (results published). In this study, corresponding costs were assessed as man-hours resulting from hours of work of SP and tutors. A cost-effectiveness analysis was performed.
resultsCost-effectiveness analysis revealed a major advantage for RP as compared to SP (112 vs. 172 man hours; cost effectiveness ratio .74 vs. .45) at comparable performance levels after training with both methods.
conclusionsWhile both peer role play and training with standardized patients have their value in medical curricula, RP has a major advantage in terms of cost-effectiveness. This could be taken into account in future decisions.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.