The Effect of Virtual Training Course of Brain Diseases and Pathologies CT Scan Interpretation on the Rate of Accurate Diagnosis by Medical Students

Abstract

Background: A brain computerized tomography (CT) scan is an important diagnostic tool to guide physicians and it should be basically known by every medical student, resident, and physician. This study aimed to investigate the effect of virtual training course of brain diseases and pathologies CT scan interpretation on the rate of accurate diagnosis by medical students. Materials and Methods: This single-blinded randomized controlled trial study was performed on 60 medical students who were divided into control and intervention groups. The training course for CT scan imaging was performed virtually for the case group and traditionally for the control group by participating in face-to-face meetings. The test for the diagnosis of the brain injury images was conducted before and after the intervention and the score of each subject was calculated. Independent sample t-test, paired sample t-test, and chi-square were used to analyze the data. Results: The mean score of students in the brain injury diagnosis test before and after the implementation of the CT scan medical imaging training course in both virtual and face-to-face methods did not show a significant difference (P value > 0.05); but, in both methods, the mean score of test was significantly increased (P value < 0.001). In both face-to-face and virtual training methods, the level of medical students' skill in diagnosing the brain injuries was improved, and there was no significant difference between the two methods. Conclusion: Our results showed the same effectiveness of both face-to-face and virtual methods in interpretation skills of brain CTs.