Effectiveness of Artificial Intelligence Based Educational Approach in Developing Clinical Reasoning Skills

Official title

Effectiveness of Artificial Intelligence Based Educational Approach in Developing Clinical Reasoning Skills in Physiotherapy Students

Overview

In the context of this study, the 2nd and 3rd grade undergraduate students in Medipol University, Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation, will taken into an education program to increase and assess their theoretical knowledge level, clinical decision-making skills and attitudes towards interactive learning with artificial intelligence by applying the ChatGPT-supported PBL module and the results will be compared with traditional teaching methods.

Detailed description

In recent years, the use of artificial intelligence-based applications in the field of health education has been rapidly increasing; especially large language models such as ChatGPT have attracted attention in terms of providing rapid access to information and individualized learning opportunities. Utilizing this potential of artificial intelligence, especially in active learning methods such as problem-based learning (PBL), is seen as an approach that can strengthen student-centered education. It is reported in the literature that ChatGPT-supported learning applications yield positive results in medical education, increase theoretical success and provide significant improvements in clinical skills. However, applications specific to physiotherapy education are still limited in this regard. Physiotherapy education requires students to have not only theoretical knowledge but also versatile skills such as clinical decision-making, problem-solving, and patient communication. Therefore, it is important to systematically investigate the effect of ChatGPT-supported PBL applications on student performance and satisfaction. Professionals should be able to benefit from these systems when they do not know where to start in a different case, and students should be informed about this issue by academicians who are experts in their fields in the university environment. In order to prevent the misuse of these systems, it is thought that academicians should not avoid technology and should benefit from the interactive course processing and correct communication opportunities that these systems can create with patients. Today, teaching students how to use technology instead of telling them not to use it is very important for academic success. In this context, the aim of this study is to evaluate the student's theoretical knowledge level, clinical decision-making skills and attitudes towards interactive learning with artificial intelligence and compare them with traditional teaching methods by applying the ChatGPT-supported PBL module to volunteer groups consisting of undergraduate students of Istanbul Medipol University, Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation.

Interventions

• Other AI based clinical problem solving education
  This direct involvement of AI and educators aims to improve learning outcomes by leveraging the scalability of AI and the expertise of educators. The question sets created by students and the answers obtained from ChatGPT are discussed within the group and prepared for class presentation, and the instructor provides feedback on accuracy, timeliness, and scientific relevance. This process aims to support students' participation as active questioners and analyzers, rather than passive consumers of
• Other Traditional Low Back Pain Education
  The first session will be given by an independent/different instructor about the definition, reasons, evaluation and the treatment of low back pain for 2 hours. Afterwards the students will be informed about the content of the next week's interactive course and supplied with the study sources like book, articles by the other lecturer. A week will be given to the students to study and the other week they will meet with the lecturer to discuss over a specific case. At the beginning and end of the

Primary outcome measures

• Theoretical knowledge test [Time frame: 4 weeks]
• Mini Clinical Evaluation Exam (Mini-CEX) [Time frame: 4 weeks]

Secondary outcome measures (4)

• Student Satisfaction and Attitude Survey [Time frame: 4 weeks]
• Young Internet Addiction Test [Time frame: 4 weeks]
• Adult Reading Motivation Scale [Time frame: 4 weeks]
• Artificial Intelligence Self-Efficacy Scale [Time frame: 4 weeks]

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion criteria

• Being an undergraduate student
• Being voluntary to attend to the courses

Exclusion criteria

• Not attending to the sessions on time
• Being a 4th grade student who already took and learned the process of clinical problem solving
• Want to recruit to study during the study process

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: Yes

Study design

Allocation

Randomized

Model

Parallel assignment

Masking

Double blind

Primary purpose

Other

Study locations

Turkey (Türkiye) · 1 center

• Medipol University İstanbul — Istanbul

Publications

• Ergezen Sahin G, Aras Bayram G, Sanchez Sierra A, Akdemir S, Kurc D, Tarakci D, Tunali AN. Effects of artificial intelligence based physiotherapy educational approach in developing clinical reasoning skills: a randomized controlled trial. BMC Med Educ. 2025 Oct 9;25(1):1378. doi: 10.1186/s12909-025-07926-w. PMID 41068907

Identifiers

NCT: NCT07010991 · MedipolU-SBF-FTR-SA-01

Primary sources (government registries)

• ClinicalTrials.gov (US NIH)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗