Games are an emerging pedagogical tool in medical education, and they are recognized as a potentially attractive form of complementary learning. Research on the application of games in medical education has gradually increased in recent years, but the development of related research in China has been slow. Reviewing the research literature related to the use of games in medical education and gaining a comprehensive understanding of the current status and hotspots of the development of this field will be conducive to promoting the development of the research field of medical education in China.

To analyze the current status of the research on the application of games to medical education, and to provide reference and information for future research related to the application of games to medical education.

From February to April in 2023, with the help of CiteSpace 6.1R6 and Microsoft Excel 2019 software, we searched the relevant literature from Web of Science Core Collection database (WoSCC) from 2013-01-01 to 2023-02-26 with the theme of "game" and "medical education", and analyzed the number of publications, authors, countries/institutions, and the number of articles.

Finally, 652 English-language articles were included. There was a general upward trend in the number of publications in the last 11 years, with the United States being the top country in terms of the number of publications (201), centrality (0.48), and the annual number of publications, and Canada (67, centrality 0.15) and the United Kingdom (56, centrality 0.47) in the second and third places, respectively. The University of Toronto, Canada was the institution with the highest total number of articles with 21 articles. High-frequency keywords included medical education, education, serious games, simulation, and performance. The keyword with the highest level of emergence in the keyword emergence analysis was serious games (emergence intensity 3.4) .

Currently, the application of games in medical education has attracted more and more attention from scholars, and the research hotspots mainly focus on the role played by different games in the process of talent cultivation, but there is no high-quality evidence to provide educators with evidence-based recommendations. China still needs further exploration in this field, and educators need to apply more in the teaching process to better validate its effectiveness and promote the development of medical education.

游戏是医学教育中一种新兴的教学工具，其被认为是一种潜在的、有吸引力的补充学习形式。近年来对于游戏应用于医学教育的研究逐渐增多，但国内相关研究发展较慢。回顾在医学教育中使用游戏的相关研究文献，全面了解该领域发展现状及热点，有利于促进我国医学教育研究领域的发展。

分析游戏应用于医学教育研究的现状，为今后游戏应用于医学教育相关研究提供借鉴与参考。

于2023年2—4月，借助CiteSpace 6.1R6、Microsoft Excel 2019软件，以"game"and"medical education"为主题，从Web of Science核心合集数据库（WoSCC）检索2013-01-01—2023-02-26共11年间的相关文献，对发文量、作者、国家/机构、关键词、爆发词等进行可视化分析。

最终纳入652篇英文文献。近11年发文量总体呈上升趋势，美国是发文量（201篇）、中心性（0.48）位居第一的国家，第二和第三分别是加拿大（67篇，中心性0.15）和英国（56篇，中心性0.47）。加拿大多伦多大学以发文量21篇成为发文总量最多的机构。高频关键词包括医学教育、教育、严肃游戏、模拟和表演。关键词突现分析中突现程度最高的关键词是严肃游戏（突现强度3.4）。

目前，游戏在医学教育中的应用越来越引起学者们的关注，研究热点主要集中在不同游戏在人才培养过程中发挥的作用，但没有高质量的证据为教育者提供证据式建议。我国在该领域仍需进一步探索，需要教育工作者们在教学过程中更多地应用游戏，以更好的对其有效性进行验证，促进医学教育的发展。