About the Acute Medicine programme
ACUMEN is a web-based learning resource for trainees in internal medicine. It has been developed by the Royal College of Physicians, The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, in collaboration with NHS England (elearning for healthcare – elfh), to enable trainees to access elearning sessions relevant to all levels of competence as described in the Internal Medicine curriculum.
ACUMEN will be of specific use to trainees in IMT and ACCS years but will also act as a useful “aide memoire” for more senior trainees. It is based on scenarios of patient presentations across a wide variety of medical specialties. The trainee has the opportunity to take a virtual history, examine the patient and then create a management plan and investigation list. This can then be compared with a plan of action created by an expert. Many of these scenarios are supported by knowledge sessions covering the facts behind disparate pathological conditions. There are more than two hundred sessions to undertake and these are continuing to increase in number. While some of the scenarios cover common presentations some are less common and, because of limitations of exposure to some relatively common conditions that trainees may experience, these sessions will augment the learning that should occur within the work place.
About the content
What does it cover?
The curricula define 65 major forms of presentation to acute medical units. These include four emergency presentations (unconscious patient, shocked patient, cardio-respiratory arrest and anaphylaxis). After this, the curricula list the twenty most common symptom based presentations such as breathlessness and chest pain. The next 40 presentations are defined by symptoms that are less common but not uncommon within an acute medical unit. The ACUMEN project takes each of these presentations and presents them as interactive clinical scenarios where the trainee is able to follow the patient from the initial presentation, where a history may be taken and a virtual examination performed, through the development of an investigation and management plan through to the conclusion and review of the patient outcomes. The trainee may then compare their performance with that of the ‘expert’.
Who writes the content?
The content is entirely written by practicing clinicians from around the UK. Each clinician works with an instructional designer to ensure that rigorous clinical content is presented in a way that is both highly interactive and consistent with accepted educational theory.
Is the content peer-reviewed?
All content is reviewed by an expert editorial team of acute physicians to ensure that it is relevant, accurate and consistent with accepted best practice in the UK.
How much content is available?
ACUMEN currently has over 200 learning sessions available covering all four Emergency Presentations, all the Top Twenty-One Presentations as well as a range of Other Important Presentations. New content is currently being added on a regular basis, and the production of new content will continue in line with available funding.
Project team
- Mike Jones, Clinical Project Lead
- Karole Smith, Programme Manager, Technology Enhanced Learning, NHS England
- Jen Van Iwaarden, Senior Project Manager, Technology Enhanced Learning, NHS England
- Catriona Ramsay, Learning Designer, Technology Enhanced Learning, NHS England
How to access
In order to access the ACUMEN programme, you will need an elfh account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.
To view the ACUMEN programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.
Organisations wishing to use their own LMS
For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.
How to license
In the event that you do not qualify for free access to the ACUMEN programme, you are able to license access through eIntegrity, a community-interest company established for this purpose.
You can check whether or not you qualify for free access by clicking on the ‘Register’ button above.
For more information on the licensing options available for the ACUMEN programme, please visit the eIntegrity website.