UNSTRUCTURED
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has severely prevented the traditional face-to-face teaching, including the case-based learning (CBL), in medical education. While learning and instructing online has become the main way of teaching worldwide during the pandemic, it cannot yet fully meet the needs of medical students to improve their clinical thinking ability that requires experience in the hospital. Therefore, the online CBL shows special advantages in the situation. Here, we have examined the advantages and limitations, innovation, and recent development of internet based CBL (I-CBL) in clinical medical education to not only meet the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also put forward new directions for internet based future medical education. Methods: We compared three leading methods of I-CBL described in the literature, i.e., WeChat, Online Conference, and Online Learning Platform. We analyzed the key development of I-CBL and then suggested new directions for further expanding it. Results: WeChat has more advantages over the other two methods in many aspects in China, where it is the main smart phone app for communication. Therefore, it is recommended that universities adopt WeChat or similar apps to enable I-CBL. Conclusion: There are still many gaps in the development of I-CBL. Compared with the short-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the long-term impact and significance of I-CBL is more noteworthy. Colleges and universities should be prepared to invest into integrating high-tech with I-CBL to modernize medical education in the internet 5G age.