CAMEO-B : a CD-ROM Package for Australian Medical Students

Lara Strassburger*
University of Queensland
l.strassburger@mailbox.uq.edu.au

A comprehensive CD-ROM package for medical students is currently under development at the University of Queensland. Educational Multimedia Services (EMS) of the Teaching and Educational Development Institute is responsible for the program design & development and the Department of Social and Preventative Medicine with the National Breast Cancer Centre is responsible for curriculum design and content. Titled _Curriculum for Australian Medical Education in Oncology - Breast_ or _CAMEO-B_, the package will enable medical students to enter the work force with an understanding of pertinent issues that relate to the diagnosis and management of breast cancer. The educational areas to be covered are:
- basic and clinical sciences; - communication and clinical skills; - patient in context; and - personal and professional development.

It is designed to be a self-directed package and is problem-based in nature. The student will take on the role of a generic medical practitioner who must go through the appropriate processes of history-taking, examination, initial assessment, referrals, management and follow-up with three different patients, all of whom are at different levels of disease state. Through a series of question and answer sessions with the patient, the student will be able to assess their own knowledge and refer to appropriate resources, as necessary, to answer the questions asked. The resources available will vary in nature, and will include a range of text, graphics and video - all of which will be searchable by keyword and title.

The interactive style of this package will make it a very effective and useful learning tool, and additionally the resources provided within the package will remain useful to the students during their medical careers.
The focus of CAMEO-B is on the learner and how best they can fulfill the course objectives. We believe that the style in which this package will be delivered will maximise the learning potential, as:
1.the user will be drawn into the realistic environment; and 2.the entire program will run from the perspective of the user, and all choices and responses that he or she makes throughout the program will effect the outcomes for the patient - all with the help of the complex engines that make up the program.

This project requires a significant amount of input from both EMS and the medical content experts. We believe this work is extremely valuable for medical students because they will be provided with a self-directed, self-paced highly engaging package from which to learn critical concepts and methodologies. Ideally this CD-ROM will be accompanied by a full-length video and print materials as well, which will again enhance the learning opportunities available to those students using the product. CAMEO-B, we expect, will be adopted as part of the medical course at a number of Australian universities, and Flinders University in South Australia will be trialling the package in Semester 1, 1998, following use by a small group of University of Queensland medical students late this year.