To investigate the instructive effects of'doctor-patient communication teaching' based on Simodent digital consultation system within oral experiment training and clinical practice.

Both of the'doctor-patient communication' classroom and tracking experiments were proceeded among the 2012 grade five-year BDS students of Guanghua School of Stomatology, Sun Yat-sen University. For the classroom experiment, each student simulated the'doctor-patient communication' before and after using the Simodent virtual simulation system, and the subjective scores were recorded by two teachers. For the tracking experiment, usual performance scores of the 2012 grade five-year BDS students were investigated during their clinical internship of operative dentistry and endodontics, comparing with those of the 2011 grade five-year BDS students. Differences of the total score and the 'doctor-patient communication' score were analyzed. Meanwhile, the incidence of medical disputes over the past three years, as well as the results of the questionnaire on'doctor-patient communication teaching', were collected and analyzed. The normal distribution of the data and the homogeneity of variance were tested, and then the t test was applied, and the difference was statistically significant by P<0.05.

After the use of the Simodent virtual system, the students′ scores of'doctor-patient communication' were improved, and the differences were statistically significant. The'doctor-patient communication' score of 2011 and 2012 grade students were 85.7 ± 3.5 and 81.4 ± 4.5, the differences were statistically significant (t= 2.39, P= 0.03) . The issue of'doctor-patient communication' was still the main reason of medical disputes. Compared with the previous years of 2016 and 2015, the number of medical disputes caused by interns′ 'doctor-patient communication' decreased significantly in 2017. Results of the questionnaire showed that 80.8% of students considered the 'doctor-patient communication' as the primary and extreme important matter during their internship. 90.4% of students perceived the necessity of 'doctor-patient communication teaching' during the head-simulator laboratory study in advance.

The early 'doctor-patient communication teaching' based on the Simodent virtual system could greatly improve the students′ attention to the communication with patients. The corresponding measures could be adopted in clinical practice in order to interfere the occurrence of medical disputes.