Design und Evaluation eines Prüf-Studierenden-Kurses für studentische prospektive Multicenterstudien – ein CHIR-Net-SIGMA-Projekt zum forschenden Lernen

BACKGROUND: Scientific skills are not sufficiently taught during medical training, neither in medical school nor during postgraduate education. This results in a lack of clinician scientists. In order to counter this problem, the surgical study network (CHIR-Net) founded SIGMA (Student-initiated German Medical Audit). This paper describes the development, performance and evaluation of a Clinical Investigator Training (CIT) aiming to qualify students to autonomously conduct clinical trials. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Based on the Kern cycle, a curriculum was developed, composed of three parts: online tutorials, a workshop and a follow-up period. The educational objectives were defined according to Bloom's taxonomy of knowledge. The learning objectives were based on the requirements of the "Network of Coordinating Centers for Clinical Trials" and the German Medical Association as well as content relevant to clinical studies. A wide range of educational instruments and assessments were used. By including all relevant professional groups involved in clinical trials, an interconnected working environment for students was generated. The increase in knowledge was assessed by a multiple-choice pre/post exam. The satisfaction of participants was analysed by a 5-point Likert scale, on which 5 indicated full approval. RESULTS: The first SIGMA CIT was realised in 2018; the workshop took place in Heidelberg in February. Thirty-two medical students from thirteen different centres participated. On average, 53.8 ± 8.3% of questions were answered correctly in the pre-test, compared with 71.2 ± 7.2% in the post-test (p < 0.0001). The maximal individual improvement was 30%; the lowest difference compared to the pre-test was 5%. Subjective evaluation results were positive with an average result of 4.63 ± 0.34 on a 5-point Likert scale. CONCLUSION: It is feasible to teach medical students the fundamentals of clinical trials. A compact Clinical Investigator Training using modern principles of teaching is able to prepare students for an autonomous performance of clinical trials.