AI-generated virtual patients are being used in a project led by Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust, to explore how they can support medical students develop essential clinical skills.
The 18-month project, a collaboration with Kent and Medway Medical School and the University of Kent, is designed to offer medical students opportunities to practice clinical conversations and key skills in a “safe and structured environment” before moving on to real clinical settings.
The trust reports using “realistic virtual patient avatars” capable of interacting with students, as well as insights from people with lived experience of mental illness, to ensure scenarios are as realistic and respectful as possible.
Virtual patients will first be piloted with students in their third year at Kent and Medway Medical School, being used to help with revision across psychiatric history-taking, communication skills, empathy, and clinical reasoning. Feedback from these sessions will then be shared with researchers.
Kent and Medway Mental Health notes that findings from the pilot will help teams to refine the tech ahead of a planned trial of its use as a self-directed learning tool in the next academic year.
“Our students need opportunities to develop confidence in complex clinical conversations, particularly in psychiatry where communication and relationships are fundamental,” says director of undergraduate medical education Mudasir Firdosi. “This project allows us to explore how emerging technology can complement existing teaching and give students more opportunities to practise in a supportive environment, helping them prepare for their future roles as doctors.”
Wider trend: Health AI
For a recent session focusing on AI in healthcare, HTN was joined by an expert panel including Simon Brown, head of digital at Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Wahida Jabarzai, clinical AI and automation delivery lead at University Hospitals of Northamptonshire and University Hospitals of Leicester; and Julian Wiggins, healthcare solution director at Rackspace Technology. Our panel considered the wider challenge of AI adoption, looking at what makes a successful deployment, introducing AI safely and sustainably at scale, and some of the use cases currently delivering value across their organisations.
The MHRA has published findings from the National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare research, pointing to the need to balance a desire to use AI in improving patient care and supporting healthcare professionals, with “safe, fast and trusted” regulation. Almost three-quarters of respondents (73 percent) disagreed or strongly disagreed that the current regulatory framework is sufficient to ensure safety and performance standards; with 61 percent disagreed or strongly disagreed with its effectiveness in tackling data governance and data privacy. 61 percent also thought current requirements for clinical evidence are insufficient, and 65 percent pointed to a need for more to be done on post-market surveillance.
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