Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41555279›Full record

ArticleBMC medical education2026

Development and validation of virtual patients for assessing history taking and communication skills among medical students.

Nurul Ain Mohd Salim, Azreen Azman, Puteri Suhaiza Sulaiman, Nurhanis Syazni Roslan, Rafidah Hod, Siti Khadijah Adam

Abstract readValidation Study
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in BMC medical education, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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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.

2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Nurul Ain Mohd SalimDepartment of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Azreen AzmanDepartment of Multimedia, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Puteri Suhaiza SulaimanDepartment of Multimedia, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Nurhanis Syazni RoslanDepartment of Medical Education, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia.
Rafidah HodDepartment of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Siti Khadijah AdamDepartment of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. sk.adam@upm.edu.my.

Funding

Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia under the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme [FRGS/1/2019/SKK03/UPM/02/1]
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe integration of virtual patients (VPs) into medical education is expanding globally, enhancing traditional training and supporting the development of clinical skills. In Malaysia, adoption is progressing, although dependence on imported platforms may compromise cultural and linguistic authenticity. We developed three culturally adapted VPs reflecting the local healthcare context. The VP application, featuring a custom virtual reality (VR) environment, 3-dimensional (3D) avatars and speech functions, was deployed on the Oculus Meta Quest 2 headset. This device provides an immersive, user-friendly experience, allowing students to interact with VPs via hand-held controllers.

methodsThe developed VPs were assessed in terms of their content, face, construct, and concurrent validity, as well as the reliability for use in history-taking and communication skills assessment. Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics software version 25.

resultsThe VPs showed acceptable content and face validity, indicating that the case design, interface, and simulated environment were appropriate and realistic. However, reliability and other validity measures, including construct validity and concurrent validity, were found to be limited.

conclusionThese findings may have been affected by factors such as small sample size, variability among students and examiners, limited scenario complexity, and technical issues related to speech recognition and system responsiveness. Addressing these limitations in future research could improve the generalizability of the results, while refinements in scenario design, artificial intelligence (AI) integration, and user interfaces are key to maximizing the pedagogical potential of VPs.

Indexed as

Clinical CompetenceCommunicationEducation, Medical, UndergraduateMedical History TakingStudents, MedicalVirtual RealityAvatarHumansMalaysiaPatient SimulationReproducibility of ResultsUser-Computer InterfaceCommunication skillsHistory takingMedical educationVirtual patientsVirtual reality

Identifiers

PMID41555279
PMCPMC12896329

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

None linked

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.