Jaclyn Gurwin|Karen Revere|Suzannah Niepold|Barbara Bassett|Rebecca Mitchell|Stephanie Davidson|Horace M. DeLisser|Gil Binenbaum
A Randomized Controlled Study of Art Observation Training to Improve Medical Student Ophthalmology Skills
Penn Presbyterian Medical Center|University of Pennsylvania|Penn Presbyterian Medical Center|University of Pennsylvania|Children's Hospital of Philadelphia|Philadelphia Museum of Art|Philadelphia Museum of Art|Philadelphia Museum of Art|Massachusetts General Hospital|Harvard University|University of Pennsylvania|Penn Presbyterian Medical Center|University of Pennsylvania|Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
observation description critical practice medicine ophthalmology particular however medical education provide explicit training areas medical students often criticized deficiencies skills sought evaluate effects formal observation training visual arts general ophthalmologic observational skills medical studentsrandomized singlemasked controlled trialthirtysix firstyear medical students randomized 11 arttraining control groupsstudents arttraining group taught professional art educators philadelphia museum art 6 customdesigned 15hour art observation sessions 3month period subjects completed pre posttesting described works art retinal pathology images external photographs eye diseasesgrading written descriptions observational descriptive abilities reviewers using priori rubric masked group assignment pretestingposttesting statusobservational skills measured description testing improved significantly training group mean change 191 points compared control group mean change 135 points p 0001 significant improvements training vs control group test subscores poststudy questionnaire students reported applying skills learned museum clinically meaningful ways medical schoolart observation training firstyear medical students improve clinical ophthalmology observational skills principles field visual arts reputed excel teaching observation descriptive abilities successfully applied medical training studies examine impact training clinical care