ArticleMedical education online2026
A scoping review on the use of virtual patients for enhancing empathy in medical students.
Article in Medical education online, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- A combined PBL and flipped classroom intervention enhances self-directed learning ability and empathy in ophthalmology undergraduates.Scientific reports · 2026Article
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
Virtual patients have been increasingly utilized in medical education to develop empathy in a structured and scalable manner. Compared with traditional methods such as clinical practice and standardized patients, virtual patients can offer reproducible, resource-efficient learning experiences. This scoping review maps the research on virtual patient-based interventions designed to foster empathy in medical students. It seeks to identify existing research gaps, including conceptual definitions of empathy, scenario design, instructional strategies, assessment methods, and outcome measures. The Joanna Briggs Institute's scoping review methodology was followed, and the PRISMA-ScR guidelines for reporting were used. A comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed, CINAHL, ERIC, Web of Science, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library. Two independent reviewers screened all titles, abstracts, and full texts; a third reviewer resolved any discrepancies. Findings were presented narratively and in tabular form to highlight key insights and research gaps. Eighteen studies involving 1,920 medical students were included. The most common study design was single-arm pre-post pilot studies (
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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.