Introduction

The education of future healthcare professionals, and future doctors in particular, is a complex endeavour. As educators, we strive to provide our learners with the best possible guidance, creating meaningful educational opportunities, and fostering a nurturing learning environment during their journey. There are many benefits to adopting a game-based learning approach, which combines educational effectiveness with an engaging and relaxed learning environment.

However, many game-based learning tools consist of computer software or online platforms, which have several disadvantages for most institutions: they are often costly and require significant equipment investments to be implemented; they cannot easily be tailored to suit the context of healthcare and practice in the area of implementation; and they require educators to have technical expertise to implement them in their curricula.

To capture the benefits of game-based learning, but avoid the shortcomings of digital games, we decided to design a board game. Board games are inexpensive and engaging, and the basic mechanics of board games, such as turn-based participation and movement of a player marker on a board, have stood the test of time.

In line with our commitment to high-quality education for all, and in contrast with the rising costs of digital educational platforms, we also decided to make our game fully accessible and available to anyone in the world. We achieved this through publication as an Open Educational Resource. Moreover, thanks to the support of the University of Newcastle, we made all components of our game available in editable format on our institution’s website, to allow for contextualisation and further creation by other educators around the world.

The text of Diagnosis: A Medical Education Game can be fully edited to suit your learners’ educational needs using a simple word processor, including changing existing rules, adding or removing rules to make the game easier or harder, or to target specific learning areas. It can be played anywhere, requiring only a standard colour printer, inexpensive dice or an online dice roller, and player markers.

We are incredibly excited to share with you the product of many years of work and contributions by numerous people. Piloting and implementation of Diagnosis have been tremendously rewarding activities, showing us that, ultimately, high-quality, impactful learning does not require expensive resources or austere learning environments.