A pilot survey investigating trainee doctors attitudes to the use of serious games in musculoskeletal disease education

Background: Musculoskeletal diseases are major causes of ill health which can lead to significant physical and psychosocial problems. In order to provide more cost effective teaching for doctors e-learning has now become an important component of their education. Attention is now focussing on the educational use of computer games as their inherent characteristics could promote those problem based cognitive skills needed by doctors. Methods: Specialist registrars (SpR) in rheumatology and undergraduate medical students (University of Birmingham and City Hospital, Birmingham UK) studying musculoskeletal diseases were asked to complete an online questionnaire. The survey contained questions about the trainee doctor, how often they played computer games, preferred platforms, genres, their views on video games in medical education as well as which topics in musculoskeletal disease could benefit from being explained in the form of games. Results: Twenty seven trainee doctors responded, 11 undergraduates (M:6;F:5) and 16 SpRs (M:6;F:10). Age range was 18 to 39. Sixteen respondents (59%) played video games of those younger participants ( 30) (n=4: 25%). Males played more (n=10: 63%) than females (n=6: 37%). Of the eleven undergraduates 82% (n=9) played games where as of the sixteen SpRs only 44% (n=7) played. Platforms used by the sixteen gamers were consoles (n=12: 75%), PCs (n=9: 56%), mobile phones (n=4: 25%) and portable devices (n=3:19%). Preferred genres were in the order adventure (n=9: 56%) > first person shooter (n=8: 50%) and simulations (n=8: 50%) > real time strategy (n=5: 31%) or sports (n=5: 31%) > role playing (n=3:19%) games. Of the total respondents undergraduates were more positive about games in their education. Conclusion: This was a preliminary study and therefore caution must be used when interpreting the data. However there were positive responses from the undergraduates towards the use of video games in their education. In future serious games may play an important role in medical education and warrants further investigation.