Efficacy of a Smartphone-Based Virtual Patient in Increasing Clinical Competence Among Primary Health Care Providers: Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Xiaohui Wang   ¹ , PhD ;   Kaixuan Zhang   ¹ , BSc ;   Jie Du   ^{1, 2} , MPH ;   Yiyuan Cai   ³ , PhD ;   Jin Cao   ¹ , MPH ;   Yaolong Chen   ⁴ , PhD ;   Liwen Ding   ⁵ , MD ;   Yuan Fang   ⁵ , PhD ;   Wenjie Gong   ⁶ , PhD ;   Wenjun He   ⁷ , PhD ;   Jinghua Li   ⁸ , PhD ;   Huijuan Liang   ⁹ , PhD ;   Jing Liao   ¹⁰ , PhD ;   Yun Lu   ¹¹ , MSc ;   Baibing Mi   ¹² , PhD ;   Jay Pan   ¹³ , PhD ;   Ruixin Wang   ¹⁴ , PhD ;   Dong Roman Xu   ^{15, 16} , PhD ;   Nan Zhang   ⁹ , PhD ;   Qing Zhao   ⁷ , PhD ;   Jifang Zhou   ¹⁷ , PhD ;   Zhongliang Zhou   ¹⁸ , PhD ;   Zixin Wang   ⁵ , PhD

¹ Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China

² Department of Psychological Medicine, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China

³ Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang, Guizhou, China

⁴ Institute of Health Data Science / Evidence-Based Medicine Center, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

⁵ Centre for Health Behaviours Research, JC School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China (Hong Kong)

⁶ HER Team and Department of Maternal and Child Health, Xiangya School of Public Health, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China

⁷ School of Health Management, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

⁸ Department of Public Health and Medicinal Administration, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Macau, Macau, Macao

⁹ School of Health Management, Inner Mongolia Medical University, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China

¹⁰ Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

¹¹ Department of Preventive Medicine, Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, School of Public Health, Guizhou Medical University, Guizhou, China

¹² Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an, Shanxi, China

¹³ HEOA Group, West China School of Public Health and West China Fourth Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China

¹⁴ Department of Health Economics, School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, China

¹⁵ Southern Medical University Institute for Global Health (SIGHT), Dermatology Hospital of Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China

¹⁶ Acacia Lab for Implementation Science, School of Health Management and Center for World Health Organization Studies, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China

¹⁷ School of International Business, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

¹⁸ School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China