Recently, the use of Virtual Patient (VP) software in health-related fields, including pharmaceutical education, has become more common. Despite this, no recent studies have used strong scientific evidence to measure how effective this tool is in teaching pharmacy students and pharmacists various patient-care competencies. The present study holistically assesses the extent to which VP software effectively develops patient-care competencies in pharmaceutical education.
Methods
Eight databases were searched for studies published before April 4, 2019. Terms associated with “virtual patient”, “pharmaceutical education,” “pharmacists” and “pharmacy students” were used in the database search. In accordance with its research designs, the quality of each article was assessed using the MERSQI, CASP, or MMAT tools.
Results
After screening the studies, 29 met the eligibility criteria. United States were country publication more frequent (n = 17; 58.62%). The effect of software was positive in most studies (n = 26; 89, 65%). In the quality assessment, the quantitative studies received an average score of 13.0 ± 2.66, while the qualitative study achieved 70% of the items and mixed studies achieved 57.34 ± 26.46% of the items, on average.
Implications
The studies presented satisfactory methodological quality, showing that VP software is effective in developing appropriate patient-care competencies in pharmaceutical education. In the future, the VP software used in pharmaceutical education must constantly evolve, adopting “new” and effective technologies (eg, virtual reality and artificial intelligence). In addition, future studies must evaluate the effect/perception of software among pharmacists.
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