Study population
sarcoidosis, pneumothorax, non-small-cell lung carcinoma, CM, COPD
COPD, SARCOIDOSIS, CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE, PNEUMOTHORAX
During their academic year, fourth-year medical students at Paris Descartes University are divided into 3 groups. They all must go through 3 courses, each consisting of 3 medical specialties, to be taken in a different order by each group throughout the year. Each course lasts 3 months (October to December 2018 –January to March 2019 and April to June 2019). During each course, students have 3 hours/week of lecture per specialty, in a standard classroom setting. At the end of each course, students must take a test on the 3 medical specialties learned during the course (3 sub-tests). Each sub-test is composed of a main clinical case and a few random multiple-choice questions. The course studied during our trial covered pulmonology, cardiology and critical care medicine (PCC). Chatprogress was developed by pulmonologists (CM and BP), it therefore more specifically aimed to train students for the pulmonology subtest. The clinical cases of the pulmonology exam during the 2018–2019 academic year revolved around sarcoidosis in December 2018, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and pneumothorax in March 2019, and non-small-cell lung carcinoma in June 2019.Fourth-year medical students from Paris Descartes University were randomized (1:1). Randomization was done for each group of students going through their PCC course with a computer-generated sequence and a one-to-one ratio (SC). All students were asked to follow their usual timetable as per standard of teaching, irrespective of group assignment. Students randomized in the trial group received an email regarding the study, with the date of an introductory meeting, conducted by BP, CM and BR, to receive further information about Chatprogress. Personal access to the platform was given that day to be used 6 weeks before the exam. Students were asked not to share their Chatprogress access, since masking of students was not feasible because of the nature of the intervention. To incite students to use the Chatbot, the five students with the most amount of finished rounds were offered movie tickets. Students initially randomly assigned to play but who were not given access to Chatprogress because absent at the introductory meeting were added to the control group. Students absent at the end-term exam were excluded from analysis.