Designing a Simulation-supported Adaptive Assessment System for Spinal Anaesthesia

This paper describes the development of a technology architecture that not only supports the technical performance assessment of a medical simulator but also facilitates a validated competence based assessment system in one selected anaesthetic procedure i.e. spinal anaesthesia. Based on extensive mapping of the competencies required for the performance of this procedure, a system architecture is proposed utilising a specifically designed anaesthetic simulator, a learning management system and back-end assessment logic. The overall system is designed to assess the agreed spinal anaesthetic competencies i.e. patient care, medical knowledge, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism and system-based practice, as defined by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.