Developing gamified interactive content for medical training in cytopathology

Abstract

Cytologists at Massachusetts General Hospital want to improve training of both medical students at Harvard Medical School and cytologists in resource-limited areas of the world. The approach is to use medical imaging game-like interactive content but that could be developed within a limited budget and meeting some challenging technical requirement (to be deployable on both PCs and in low-cost Android tablets without a continuous connection to the internet). We reviewed some of the existing games or gamified e-learning modules to create a shared understanding between medical experts and developers about possible game mechanics and to identify which of those approaches can be suitable for our case. We have applied the acquired knowledge in the creation of an integrated system composed of a web-based content editor for cytologists from where the interactive game-like application can be semi-automatically generated. Once the system has been developed we are carrying out tests with professors and students at an Introduction to Cytopathology course at Harvard Medical School to ensure both the usability of the system and that the learning goals are satisfied.