NCT05294094: DiSkO

Learning Diagnostic Skills Online (German: Diagnostik Skills Online Lernen)

Completed NA Last updated 24 March 2022

What this trial tests

NA trial testing blended learning in Diagnosis, Psychiatric in 350 participants. Completed in 14 February 2022.

Timeline

12 April 2021

Primary endpoint
14 February 2022

14 February 2022

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Ruhr University of Bochum
Phase	NA
Status	Completed
Study type	INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation	randomized
Design	parallel
Masking	single
Primary purpose	other
Enrollment	350
Start date	12 April 2021
Primary completion	14 February 2022
Estimated completion	14 February 2022
Sites	3 locations across Germany

Drugs / interventions tested

• blended learning
• teaching format as usual

Conditions studied

• Diagnosis, Psychiatric — all drugs for Diagnosis, Psychiatric →

Sponsor

Ruhr University of Bochum

Who can join

18 and older, any sex, with Diagnosis, Psychiatric. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Clinical psychologists give diagnoses to their patients everyday and these diagnoses determine if and how these patients will be treated. Misdiagnoses can have severely adverse effects. Therefore, teaching diagnostic skills to clinical psychologists is very important during their undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate training.

One major problem in teaching diagnostics is that there are too few opportunities to practice with real patients due to legal and ethical restrictions. The aim of the DiSkO-project is, therefore, the development and evaluation of a blended learning course to teach diagnostic skills to (future) clinical psychologists.

In order to make the diagnostic training more practical a series of video files of simulated diagnostic interviews will be presented in an online course. These video files will be divided in different segments and presented with questions and automatic feedback. In a second step, learners will make a transfer to a real face-to-face diagnostic situation with an actor simulating a patient.

The DiSkO- course will be evaluated in a randomized-controlled trial at three universities in Germany (Ruhr-University of Bochum, Philipps University of Marburg, University of Cologne). To test whether students are equally good in administering a diagnostic interview after taking the DiSkO-course compared to students who took part in a traditional face-to-face university course a noninferiority-analysis will be conducted. Furthermore, diagnostic knowledge and attitudes toward evidence-based assessment after taking part in DiSkO vs. the face-to-face course will be compared.

The investigators aim at disseminating the open source DiSkO-course to other universities or institutions of tertiary education in Germany with the aim of improving the diagnostic training for students, better prepare them for their clinical practice and thus improve patients' health care in Germany.

Publications & conference data

1 peer-reviewed publication reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. A Blended Learning Course on the Diagnostics of Mental Disorders: Multicenter Cluster Randomized Noninferiority Trial.
   Bonnin G, Kröber S, Schneider S, Margraf J, et al · · 2024 · cited 1× · PMID 39602218 · DOI 10.2196/54176