This was a group of about 20 Speech and Language Therapists who specialise in working with adult patients. There was a 30 minute presentation on the system (CL), and they then spent around 45 minutes. looking at the system either themselves or in pairs. There was then 10-15 minutes discussion time. These are some of the issues raised during the discussion.

Useful for students:-

• Students can use it deductively. They can generate a hypothesis and then test it.
• The pressure of having a patient/carers in front of the student is removed, giving them time to consider their decisions.

Possible problems for students:-

• -Do they have problems 'wading' through the long test lists and deciding what is appropriate? A suggestion was made that there could be 2 levels of tests, a screening set of tests (small in number) and then 'extension' testing.

CL replied that students saw the same patient for 6 weeks initially to familiarise themselves with the system, and more particularly, with the tests. It was true that in the initial stages novices had problems deciding which tests to select, tending to go for very specific discrete tests, but that this was something that could be addressed in teaching, and where a change in behaviour over time was seen.

Useful for clinicians:-

• -Having the references is extremely useful

Generally, feedback on the system was positive, with many clinicians expressing an interest in having access to PATSy for their own purposes, rather than simply in terms of student training. There was discussion of the usefulness of seeing new or research tests, and having access to a wide variety of patient data.

Useful for both students and clinicians:-

• It allows you to test your hypotheses quickly, rather than waiting for the next appointment with a patient!
• It familiarises students with tests, and clinicians with tests they may not see within their clinic, e.g. new tests, research tests etc. This may be especially useful for students if they are in a placement where they are not seeing many tests.

Suggestions made:-

• The comment was made that decisions regarding assessment etc depended on social information as well as test results. Could there be questions such as:- What are the person's needs?
  CL replied that PATSy was not to be viewed in isolation. It is an adjunct to clinical and theoretical teaching.
• Increase the spectrum of disorders. Many clinicians felt that students did not know what to do when seeing patients with what they described as 'low-level' difficulties or 'global' aphasics. Could these kinds of patients be represented on the system?
  CL replied that PATSy is a shell for any kind of data, and so certainly these patients can be put on the system. However, it is unlikely these patients will come from a research source, and so it would depend on a clinician supplying the data. The PATSy team would welcome this.
• If a patient had been assessed on writing tasks (i.e. production), then it was felt useful to see the actual results.
  CL replied that their responses could easily be scanned into the system, as if their writing was a picture. However, this has not as yet arisen with any patient.