Leaderboard Influence on Self-Regulated Training in a Gamified Dermoscopy Training App

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Leaderboard Influence on Self-Regulated Training in a Gamified Dermoscopy Training App

Study Purpose

This study aims to examine the isolated effect of leaderboards (scoreboards) and daily training motivation on dermatology skill acquisition and training engagement within a gamified dermoscopy training platform. Research Questions: What is the effect of leaderboards and/or daily motivation on diagnostic accuracy? What is the effect of leaderboards and/or daily motivation on self-regulated learning: time spent training and case amount? What is the effect of leaderboards and/or daily motivation on training distribution? Method: 150 danish medical students will upon inclusion and end of trial answer a Multiple Choice Questionnaire (MCQ). Participants will be asked to download the gamified training platform onto their mobile devices. Within the app participants can access quizzes on a library of 10,000+ skin lesions combined with written educational modules on histopathological skin diagnosis. Participants receive instant feedback on quiz answered. Points are awarded for correct answers and removed for incorrect answers. Participants will be randomized to one of three groups; either receiving no communication from the principal investigator, receiving a daily motivational message, or receiving a once daily updated leaderboard ranking participant's scores. The intervention will last for seven days, followed by a 14-day washout period.

Recruitment Criteria

Accepts Healthy Volunteers Healthy volunteers are participants who do not have a disease or condition, or related conditions or symptoms	Yes
Study Type An interventional clinical study is where participants are assigned to receive one or more interventions (or no intervention) so that researchers can evaluate the effects of the interventions on biomedical or health-related outcomes. An observational clinical study is where participants identified as belonging to study groups are assessed for biomedical or health outcomes. Searching Both is inclusive of interventional and observational studies.	Interventional
Eligible Ages	N/A and Over
Gender	All

More Inclusion & Exclusion Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

- Medical student at a Danish university.

Exclusion Criteria:

- Have not completed a university-level course on histology.

- Have completed or are currently enrolled in a clinical university course in dermatology.

- Prior experience with the app Dermloop Learn or equivalent experience via.

courses or by using other training platforms for skin diagnosis.

Trial Details

Trial ID: This trial id was obtained from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, providing information on publicly and privately supported clinical studies of human participants with locations in all 50 States and in 196 countries.	NCT06254547
Phase Phase 1: Studies that emphasize safety and how the drug is metabolized and excreted in humans. Phase 2: Studies that gather preliminary data on effectiveness (whether the drug works in people who have a certain disease or condition) and additional safety data. Phase 3: Studies that gather more information about safety and effectiveness by studying different populations and different dosages and by using the drug in combination with other drugs. Phase 4: Studies occurring after FDA has approved a drug for marketing, efficacy, or optimal use.	N/A
Lead Sponsor The sponsor is the organization or person who oversees the clinical study and is responsible for analyzing the study data.	Herlev Hospital
Principal Investigator The person who is responsible for the scientific and technical direction of the entire clinical study.	Martin Frendø, MD, PhD
Principal Investigator Affiliation	Copenhagen Academy for Medical Education and Simulation
Agency Class Category of organization(s) involved as sponsor (and collaborator) supporting the trial.	Other
Overall Status	Recruiting
Countries	Denmark
Conditions The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied.	Melanoma (Skin), Skin Cancer

Additional Details

Subjects will be recruited through advertisements in online forums for medical students across all four Danish medical schools. Upon recruitment, subjects will be included via an on-boarding online meeting. They will be introduced to the study and the training platform, and will, if they choose to participate, complete a consent form, a questionnaire of baseline information (age, gender, university semester, dermatological experience) and a 12-case validated diagnostic pre-test. Participants will be randomized to study groups via sequential block randomization. The intervention will last for seven days. Depending on group randomization, participants will on day two through seven either receive a group daily message using an internet-based messaging service (see appendix) and view a daily updated leaderboard ranking, only receive the group daily message, or receive neither. Within the app, participants are able to train dermoscopy diagnosis through sessions of 10 cases. If participants correctly diagnose 8/10 cases, they will progress to the next session with new 10 cases of a higher difficulty, and so on. If participants do not reach a certain diagnostic accuracy, they will repeat their current level with 10 new cases until they are able to progress. There are a total of 6 session levels. Each case is assigned a difficulty level from one to four, calculated based on the percentage of times it has been answered correctly by previous users. In each session, participants are presented with 40% cases at their current level, 20% of an easier difficulty, 20% of a higher difficulty, and 20% cases of an unspecified difficulty. Participants will be awarded 2 points multiplied by case difficulty for each correct answer. 2 points, multiplied by case difficulty, will be taken away if participants assign a benign diagnosis to a malignant case, and 1 point, multiplied by case difficulty, if a malignant diagnosis is assigned to a benign case. Participants will receive 0 points if a case is correctly classified as benign or malignant, but the precise histological diagnosis is incorrectly guessed (For example guessing melanoma on a basal cell carcinoma case, or nevus on a case of dermatofibroma). Participants will be able to view points earned following each training session, as well as a cumulative total. After the seven-day interventional period, participants will start a 14-day washout period, in which participants can train freely, but no group will receive either daily messages or have access to the leaderboard. After the washout period, participants will be asked to complete a validated 12-case retention test, supervised by a member of the research group in a virtual meeting. As this project is an educational study comprising medical students, it does not fulfill the criteria described in the Danish Scientific Ethical Committees Act § 2, and does not require approval by the The Regional Ethical Committee of the Copenhagen Capital Region of Denmark. A waiver has been obtained by The Regional Ethical Committee of the Copenhagen Capital Region of Denmark (case nr. F-23075872) The research group considers this project ethically responsible.

Arms & Interventions

Arms

Experimental: Motivational messages and leaderboard

This group will receive daily reminders/motivational messages. They will be able to view their personal score and will be ranked on a daily updated leaderboard.

Experimental: Only motivational messages

This group will receive daily reminders/motivational messages. They will be able to view their personal score, but they will not be ranked on a leaderboard.

No Intervention: Control

This group will be able to view their personal score, but will not be ranked on a leaderboard or receive daily reminders/motivational messages.

Interventions

Other: - Daily updated ranking on leaderboard

The intervention will last for seven days. Participants will on day two through seven receive a group daily message using an internet-based messaging service and view a daily updated leaderboard ranking. Leaderboards will demonstrate participant's ranking in their respective group, participant's (anonymized) name, cumulative point total, total case amount, and current level. Participant ranking will be based on the cumulative point total. All groups will have continual access to their personal score. Participants will not receive further training encouragement to train in the app or interact with the research group beyond this, aside from technological aid.

Other: - Daily motivational message

The intervention will last for seven days. Participants will on day two through seven receive a group daily message using an internet-based messaging service encouraging training. Participants will not receive further training encouragement to train in the app or interact with the research group beyond this, aside from technological aid.

Contact a Trial Team

If you are interested in learning more about this trial, find the trial site nearest to your location and contact the site coordinator via email or phone. We also strongly recommend that you consult with your healthcare provider about the trials that may interest you and refer to our terms of service below.