How to Write Effective Patient Case Studies in CME
Patient case studies are crucial to the continuing medical education (CME) and continuing education for health professionals (CME/CEHP) field. Learning how to write them is an important part of a CME writer’s life. Cases provide learners with the unique opportunity to participate in clinical reasoning, engage in problem-solving, and observe the complexity of patient care within real-life situations.
However, clients, organizations, employers, and other relevant parties all have different approaches (and requirements!) to patient case studies. This can present a challenge if you are writing CME content.
What is the recommended approach? What are some best practices for CME writers in tackling patient case studies? How do you develop a useful and effective patient case study in CME? We explore these questions and more.
Special thanks to Scott Kober MBA, Managing Partner of Excalibur Medical Education, for sharing his insights on crafting patient case studies for CME on an episode of the Write Medicine podcast, which contributed to this article.
What Is a Patient Case Study?
First, let’s define what a patient case study is. In CME, it's defined as a detailed description of a clinical encounter with a patient. It acts as a record of the framework and methodology used in assessing, diagnosing, and treating that particular patient.
Why Are Patient Case Reports Useful in CME?
They're an effective learning tool in CME because clinical case studies can be used to demonstrate the real-world application of theories, concepts, and clinical data. These case studies allow learners to hone the analysis and evaluation skills needed in the clinical setting and guide them on how to approach similar cases in their own practice.
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How to Write Patient Case Studies in CME/CE: Industry Best Practices
Every case study is a bit different, and the specific requirements for structure and organization may vary from client to client. Here are some helpful guidelines and recommendations to get you started.
Review Sources for Patient Cases
To write a patient case study, you first need to decide where and how you will gather your information. There are several options you can explore depending on the kind of data you need and the focus of your case study.
If you’re working with an institution, consider asking faculty for clinical information and human details about patients that you can include in your report. Up-to-Date is another option to access evidence-based resources that can guide and inform your case study.
If you are looking to include lab values in your patient case study, you may find useful data on Up-to-Date, Medscape, Merck Manual, and the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners. Each of these sources offers different types of data from clinical trials or field studies on infections—be sure to evaluate which meets the objectives of your specific patient case study in 2023.
Humanize the case study with details about patient experience and perspective. Numbers do not communicate the entire story so be sure to include examples, patient testimonials and narratives, and insights into the patient experience. Reliable sources for these would include patient advocacy organizations, the New England Journal of Medicine case challenges on novel infectious diseases in 2023, and qualitative studies on patient perspectives.
Note on patient confidentiality and anonymity in the context of publishing case reports on infectious diseases: Data privacy and protection policies apply to patient information in teaching and CME patient case studies as well as to clinical research. Be mindful of including sensitive information that would infringe on these policies.
Determine the Structure of the Patient Case Study
Patient case studies are often structured around the IMRaD (Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion) framework. Typically used in lab reports as well as to record clinical research studies, the IMRaD is equally effective at making patient case studies easier.
An alternative to the typical IMRaD structure is to adopt the Case-Based Learning (CBL) approach, which is inquiry-based. Common in CME, this format provides a way to engage learners and nurture their analysis, evaluation, and decision-making skills in real-world scenarios. These case studies tend to feature a more protracted unfolding of information over time. For CME that is conducted online or digitally, these cases may also include branched learning with alternative outcomes based on decisions the learner makes.
In CME, you may also encounter case reports that follow the journey of a single patient from the discovery of initial symptoms to diagnosis, treatment, and aftercare. You may also find case studies that feature several patient cases that represent discrete points on the disease or treatment trajectory. All three styles of presenting information can be useful in CME depending on the objective of the patient case study.
Establish a Content Development and Editorial Process
In many situations, as a CME writer, you will be tasked with gathering the necessary information before you can develop a patient case study. The key to collating the right information is asking the correct questions.
This may be a challenge when you first start out, but it gets easier with practice. Do your research before going into an interview with a faculty member or patient and prepare the questions you will ask ahead of time. Aim to ask open-ended questions that allow your interviewee to talk freely, instead of “yes” or “no” questions.
As you get more experience, you will become more attuned to the kind of inquiries that prompt the best responses and be able to guide the conversation along.
Elements of an Effective Patient Case Study in CME
Once you have determined the source and structure of the patient case study and gathered the necessary information, the next step is to consolidate and present the information.
These four key elements are essential when writing a patient case study to ensure that your work caters to learner needs.
Authenticity: The best case studies are complex and compelling. They include a level of clinical detail that is reflective of real experience. They must also provide sufficient personal detail to capture the learner’s interest and engage them. Include human elements to make case studies relatable. This approach allows learners to draw parallels between the CME content and their own patients.
Credibility: Patient case studies should involve relatively common scenarios that clinicians are likely to encounter in their own practice. Use storytelling tools to move the learner across time and connect with the patient as they might in their own clinical experience. Ensure that even the smallest details (e.g. dosage of drug administered or lab results) are reported correctly. Mistakes affect the credibility of your work!
Active Discovery: Avoid revealing all the information at once. In a real-world scenario, complete information is rarely available. Recreate the process a clinician would go through by revealing information in small chunks and allowing the case to unfold gradually over time.
Feedback: Critical to patient case studies in CME is having access to ongoing feedback. In online or text-based cases, written, audio, or video feedback can offer correction or reinforcement of correct choices that learners have made based on the information available to them.
Adapting to Changing Technology in CME
Writing effective and useful patient case studies in CME is not just about applying technical skills. Adult learning in healthcare settings has undergone many changes, particularly in relation to technology and CME writers need to be mindful of this in developing patient case studies.
One of the biggest changes is the use of different platforms that employ an increasingly advanced level of technology to aid learners. Platforms offer deeper integration of different technologies, better visualization, and more branched learning and simulation-type activities. As such, CME writers need to consider how they can best work with these tools to create positive learner outcomes.
Additionally, CME content rarely follows a linear structure because of how it is presented online and on digital platforms. This means CME writers need to present the content in a dynamic way when developing patient case studies.
Catering to Adult Learning Needs in CME
When crafting patient case studies, be mindful of the fact that adult learners are free to decide what content to consume.
Adult learning in healthcare is primarily self-driven. They are not obliged to interact with any material in particular and have the autonomy to choose what interests or engages them. As such, the onus falls on the CME writer to develop content that captures their interest, speaks to their experience, and provides value.
Whether you are developing patient case studies or other types of content, the questions to keep in mind are “What are people going to be interested in?” and “What does all this information mean?”.
By keeping the learner at the forefront of our work, we can create content that resonates and makes an impact. We might explore how this content can be applied to the learner’s daily life, and draw on their experiences in crafting patient case studies. We could also focus on translating information into material that is interesting and relevant to the reader, instead of merely trying to condense as much information as possible into a piece of content.
Hone Your Patient Case Study Writing Skills with Write Medicine
Like any other piece of CME content, writing effective patient case studies has its own quirks. This article outlines some of the strategies and tools you can use to get started but to excel , you must be prepared to practice, experiment, and keep learning. If you’re interested in learning more about how to become a medical writer, different types of CME content, and how to get started on your CME writing journey, Write Medicine is a supportive community of CME writers ready to help. Learn more about how WriteCME Pro and the Write Medicine Podcast can help you.
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