Case Study: University of Southern California improves clinical decision-making via virtual patient assessments with Questionmark

Virtual Patients Help USC School of Dentistry Test Students

The University of Southern California’s School of Dentistry (Orofacial Pain and Oral Medicine Center) trains dental students and residents—about 165 students rotate through the center each year—and needed a way to ensure trainees encountered key orofacial pain and oral medicine cases and could make clinical decisions, not just answer multiple‑choice questions. To create realistic, interactive “virtual patient” cases and deliver them online while tracking student activity, the center used Questionmark together with content developed in Adobe Captivate.

Questionmark delivers Captivate-built virtual patient cases in which students work through 6–10 cases per rotation that include graphics, video, branching diagnostic/treatment choices, immediate feedback and cumulative scoring; Questionmark also tracks time on task and whether students viewed each page. This approach guarantees exposure to common conditions, improves clinical decision-making versus traditional multiple‑choice testing (students report the cases are more meaningful in a center survey), and supports measurable monitoring and planned expansion of 18–20 additional cases—while Questionmark provides the delivery and analytics that make these outcomes visible.

University of Southern California

Glenn Clark

Professor