Developing Cases for the Healthcare Professional

When developing interactive case studies for an audience of healthcare professionals, the challenge is to present enough information without giving away too much. Sometimes, it’s the smallest of details that lead to that teaching moment.

A good case study brings clinicians into the virtual classroom, allowing them to make mistakes and play/replay scenarios in a protected environment that they can then incorporate into their day-to-day practice.

The final format of the case study often depends upon the platform being used, but there are several standard questions that must always be answered in a good case study:

·     Who is the patient? What is their family, ethnic, and medical background?

·     What about the patient’s presentation is unique and/or notable?

·     Why are we seeing this patient? What is the problem we are trying to solve?

·     Are there challenges in the diagnosis? If so, what potential tools are at our disposal to help us rule in/out potential diagnoses?

·     What steps might we initially take in the patient’s treatment/management? Are there a variety of logical options (and there’d better be, or why else are we writing about the case)?

·     Why is one choice better (or worse) than another?

·     What is the final outcome? 

At MedCaseWriter, we are experts at asking the right sorts of questions of subject matter experts that help get at those finer details that are so vital to a readable, impactful case study.

Want to know more about our philosophy behind the development of clinician-focused medical case studies? Just ask us.