Comparison of cyberclinic and virtual patient systems in terms of facilities and functional features

One of the most important ways to reduce the errors of medical students in the clinic is to create a suitable and safe situation in the simulated environment so that they can learn the desired abilities without serious complications for the patient and themselves. In addition, special attention has long been paid to the practical education of medical students along with improving the quality of education. One of the ways to increase the opportunity for practical education and reduce its limitations is by creating high-quality virtual educational spaces. In this regard, one of the new technologies that can be used that have positive results in improving the ability of students in education is cyber-clinic (web-based simulated clinic) and virtual patient. Tehran University of Medical Sciences, to move towards education virtualization, has developed a virtual patient system on the web.  In this study, articles related to cyber-clinic and virtual patient were reviewed and the key points and elements of cyber-clinic systems were extracted. Also, cyber-clinic systems in different countries were evaluated to upgrade the existing system of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences in terms of user characteristics and the capabilities of various systems in terms of user interaction, disease diagnosis, report [RG1], and feedback. According to the results of the review of the articles and systems, suggestions were made to improve the existing system in the two parts of education and evaluation and feedback.