The ZotBot is the brainchild of Drs. Cameron Harding and Heather Hofmann, Internal Medicine Hospitalists and Clerkship Directors for our Internal Medicine clerkship. During the first wave of the pandemic when most of his clinical service consisted of COVID-19 patients, he needed to find a way to bring our medical students to the bedside at a time when it was not feasible for them to do so. Outside of the hospital, much of education went to remote learning via platforms like Zoom, so Dr. Harding wanted to experiment with virtual bedside rounds.
The ZotBot had humble beginnings — the attending physician affixed an iPad Pro to a computer on wheels using an elastic exercise band, and ran the videoconferencing application. The computer was connected to the meeting to share important diagnostic findings. Students connected to the videoconference (COVID Rounds) remotely and were able to see and hear the attending physician‐patient encounter. Students asked patients questions and patients shared their perspectives of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Institutional policy for infection prevention was followed.
Version 2 of the ZotBot provided a little more device stability with adhesives to our clinical workstations on wheels.
ZotBot v3
The latest version of our ZotBot is an iPad attached to a rolling cart with a portable microphone for increased audio capabilities.
As our videoconferencing platform is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)‐compliant, the clinical team at the bedside could share relevant radiographic and laboratory results for the patient in addition to utilizing video and audio.
Not only has the ZotBot been helpful for students in the hospital who could not access certain patient areas, but for learners off-site. The ZotBot has made the process of “bringing remote learners to the bedside” extremely easy and we have a planned Clinical Immersion Bootcamp for our new first-year medical students that will allow them to join hospital rounds in the first few days of their medical training.
During the pandemic, nearly 100 students, across all 4 years, have joined Zoom rounds either as an innovative COVID experience or to maintain normalcy after they themselves were infected with COVID or developed symptoms. This was an unprecedented learning experience that would not otherwise have been possible without the innovative efforts of our teaching faculty and the availability of the ZotBot.
The entire experience was SO COOL. Probably the coolest thing i’ve seen in MS3, given the context we are now learning within. in particular, hearing the 30 year old patient (who lost his brother to COVID on 3/30…:/ ) talk to us after being on a vent, and giving us really sweet advice and encouragement. He is a gem of a person. He made me (and many of my classmates) cry from how heartening his candid nature was in the midst of such suffering.
~ Third-year Medical Student
The ZotBot at UCI has allowed our students to thrive throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We have been able to minimize disruptions to their medical training by enabling our students to provide patient care through a virtual format. By integrating technology into the medical curriculum, we continue to produce competent physicians that can provide quality patient care to the communities they serve.
Looking forward, the ZotBot at UCI allows us to bridge the gap between the basic sciences and clinical medicine. Students will have their textbook come alive with real-time, real-patient interactions that redefines what it means to correlate clinically.
~ Dr. Cameron Harding, Internal Medicine Clerkship Director
References for the above articles:
Hofmann, H., Harding, C., Youm, J., & Wiechmann, W. (2020). Virtual bedside teaching rounds with patients with COVID-19. Medical education, 54(10), 959–960. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.14223
Runge, A., Wray, A., & Harding, C. (2021). Virtual COVID rounds: A curricular enrichment program for pre-clinical medical students. Medical education, 55(5), 661. https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.14512