Abstract
Background: Many students learn better by solving cases than by reading numerous pages about a topic. The university in Oslo uses case-based methods both for teaching purposes and in written exams. There are books and web-pages containing cases in English that students use, and many seem to benefit from this way of learning. We did not find many cases written in Norwegian, or based on how medicine is practiced in Norway. This drove us to start this project. We wanted medical cases in Norwegian based on what we have learned both in the clinic and at the University. We wanted our work to be freely available for other medical students. Methods: The work has been created and carried out by three medical students from the University of Oslo and a geriatrician. A group of different doctors and professors have provided help with proofreading of the finished cases. A data engineer has been helpful establishing a webpage and administrating it. The cases are fictional, includes several multiple-choice questions and the reader is presented with immediate feedback. Results and interpretation: In the web-based cases, one patient is followed from start of symptoms, through diagnosis and risk factors, to pathophysiology and epidemiology and on to treatment and prognosis. All the cases are a little differently built up, but the idea is to follow a realistic patient progression based on acknowledged principles in medicine. In addition, the cases contain both multiple choice questions and open questions in order to stimulate active learning. The cases are freely available on the internet (http://medcase.no). Further development of more medical cases for the site would be interesting and useful.