As an Education Focused academic at UNSW my research program is pedagogical in nature and focuses on learning and assessment of clinical skills. I have published regularly over recent years, as shown in my ORCID profile (see link). My most important outputs are first-author papers I published in 2018 and 2019. These articles compare student-peer role play and student-SP interaction as the two methodologies for communication skills training. Taking different approaches to determine which method is the most successful has revealed that my volunteer simulated patient program delivers improved outcomes in subsequent student clinical examinations, whilst it is equivalent to role play when considering specific communication skills assessment outcomes. These are important findings in the field, since there is some controversy over the use of volunteers for any aspect of clinical skills training, due to the lay nature of the participants and (to some investigators) the technical nature of the skills in question. However, my research has supported the assertion that community volunteers are valid participants who can effectively, as well as cost-efficiently, perform the patient role, and that these interactions lead to improved communication skills in our student cohort. Indeed, part of my ongoing research is to investigate the wider utility of volunteer SPs in clinical skills teaching, for example by looking at data from assessments performed by clinicians, senior student assessors and volunteer SP assessors, and determining the differences and other patterns in assessment behaviour between these groups.

Evidence of Impact: Using and creating evidence to support effective and efficient methods to develop critical doctor-patient interaction skills in UNSW Medicine medical students.

The hypothesis that SP assessors are valid and effective assessors of communication skills has already been supported by research on the OSPIA platform, the use of which we demonstrated to lead to significant improvements in students’ communication skills. Indeed, the platform on which OSPIA was built has proven to be a significant piece of translational education research. After my successful use at UNSW Medicine, an educational technology start-up (Changineers) is currently commercialising the platform, and as partners in its development, the faculty will be provided with a fully updated version of the platform, whilst I continue to work on opportunities to disseminate this platform across UNSW. OSPIA presents considerable ongoing opportunities for research since it creates big datasets in regard to the non-verbal communication behaviour analysis. I am currently actively exploring with big data specialists how to approach research which would explore the correlation between specific, learnable, non-verbal communication behaviours and improved communication skills assessment outcomes.

Evidence of Impact: Technology enhanced teaching practice with ‘wrap-around’ translational research leading to improved educational outcomes, significant research outcomes (with significant scope for further cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based research) and proven potential for commercialisation and dissemination across the sector.

The CWAapp is used by students for all assessments in the clinical setting and to record clinical encounters and log competence in clinical skills and procedures. This powerful record benefits students, tutors and administrators as well as improves academic oversight and quality assurance/improvement for the medical program, as described elsewhere in my portfolio. In addition, CWAapp also creates large datasets for pedagogical research. The first such dataset is currently under analysis and will be the basis for an upcoming paper, looking at various assessors’ behaviour around communication skills assessments, as briefly described above. However, in future, as more assessment and logbooks become digitised, the opportunity will be for a significant research program. I am currently drawing together a team of colleagues who are interested in Artificial Intelligence approaches to analysis of such datasets. My proposal has been to identify the nature of student submissions to our eMed system in terms of assessment, logbook and other data. We can use final examination outcomes as a selection tool to establish two student groups, one comprising students who are ‘strong pass’, and another group of students who ‘fail or needed considerable support’. Analysis of the distinctive features of the patterns of submissions (timing, number, presence of reflection etc. as well as more obvious factors such as quality) will give insights into how these particular final student outcomes can be achieved, or avoided. With that knowledge, we propose to establish AI mechanisms, such as automated reminders and ‘bots’ to keep students ‘on track’ across the six years of their medical program. This approach will facilitate an ethos of maximal achievement and success, but in a supported manner so as to maintain student wellbeing.

Other indicators of my significant research activity and leadership are:

• Leading contributor to a cross-disciplinary (Medical Education and Paediatrics) research team investigating the impact of immersive, online, serious-game environments for learning, and comparing these with more traditional methods of teaching e.g. simulation in clinical skills centres, or paper guideline-based learning with lecture support. The first article from this project, given the significant findings showing improved learning outcomes using the PlayMed serious game, is being submitted to the New England Journal of Medicine.
• Co-supervisor for two PhD studnets in Medical Education.
• Significant support / co-supervisor to multiple higher degree students at University of Sydney over recent years in regard to research around the OSPIA platform:
  • One PhD, completed early 2019; one PhD in progress; one Master of Philosophy transferring to a PhD

Evidence of Impact: Active leadership and support of diverse educational research activities across UNSW medical specialties, as well as nationally and internationally in research groups around important current subjects of research such as clinical workplace-based assessment, and other technological enhancement of learning and teaching.