4 Jun 2021
VetCompass app available for iOS and Android has been designed to replicate typical caseloads and clinical first opinion veterinary practice scenarios.
Joshua Silverwood
Job Title
The VetCompass Virtual Vet Clinic app is available for iOS and Android devices.
Vet students could have their education boosted by an RVC-developed app aimed at making up for time lost in practice during the coronavirus pandemic.
VetCompass is a new app for iOS and Android that integrates students’ education with real-world and simulated situations that will allow them to develop their skills after missing out on time in a physical clinic.
The VetCompass Virtual Vet Clinic app was launched as part of the RVC’s response to the pandemic to replicate typical caseloads and clinical first-opinion veterinary practice scenarios in a readily accessible virtual world.
The app provides students with two options: “Improve your clinical reasoning” and “Improve your case management”, both of which drop students into 1 of 20,000 scenarios based on anonymised data taken from across the country.
The app also provides enhanced accessibility options, including dyslexia-friendly colour schemes, and both audio and written display.
The app was developed at the RVC with collaboration from the University of Surrey School of Veterinary Medicine.
Jaya Sahota, a fourth-year veterinary student at the RVC, said: “I have been looking for a resource like this forever. I’d previously searched unsuccessfully for apps with clinical cases; this has popped up at just the right moment.
“As a veterinary student, it is vital to be able to work through real-life case scenarios beyond those covered in the classroom to refine those critical day-one skills that we will be expected to perform immediately in practice.
“The software in the app is learner-friendly and includes different accessibility options which will be attractive to many users.”
Dan O’Neill, senior lecturer at the RVC and developer of the app, said: “At the RVC, we encourage students to ‘learn actively’ by reflecting, doing and collaborating rather than ‘learning passively’ by just memorising lists and facts.
“This app supports modern learning theory by providing diverse and realistic clinical scenarios that students can work up alone or in groups.
“The app provides the questions, but leaves the students to generate their own solutions to these clinical conundrums, therefore optimising the learning experience.”
