Patient-centred learning - back to the future

Background: Historically, medical students learned the art and science of medicine from the patients they encountered. While students were highly motivated to learn through this approach, the serendipitous nature of real practice and the variability in the skills of their teachers proved to be liabilities for learning. This apprenticeship-style education was replaced by a more formal didactic curriculum during the twentieth century. Description: The power of computer technology enables medical educators to recapture the authenticity of patient-centred learning (PCL) through the creation of a virtual practice populated by a panel of virtual patients. In contrast to traditional problem-based learning cases, PCL virtual patients return for multiple visits with their student-doctors, demonstrating how diseases change over time, interact with other diseases and risk factors, and are influenced by psychosocial factors. Conclusions: New approaches to pedagogy embodied in patient-centred learning allow the curriculum to be organized around the patients, both real and simulated.