The Groningen Institute Model for Management in Care Services aims to prepare medical students for their complex tasks as family physicians, based on the CanMEDS framework. Although initially developed for pharmacy students, the present paper reports on the eight-year experience with GIMMICS for family physician students at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

The Groningen Institute Model for Management in Care Services is a training game that simulates real-life situations in a structured and supervised setting. It offers students the possibility to practice clinical, practical, and communicational skills. Students install and manage their group practices, hold consultations with simulated patients, participate in several assignments and collaborate with pharmacy students. Feedback sessions showed that the training game is well-received by the students. A self-assessment questionnaire comprised of 23 questions on significant aspects of the seven CanMEDS roles showed significantly higher scores at the end of the game for 17 questions (p<0.05, Wilcoxon signed-rank test ).

GIMMICS is a valuable linking pin between the different learning methods in medical education and clinical practice, helping students to improve themselves in the CanMEDS roles. However, simulation-based medical education requires significant time and resource investment.