AI ‘patients’ used to help train student doctors

Medical students learning at universities and a hospital have been practising talking to patients using artificial intelligence (AI).

Dr Chris Jacobs, a GP at Merchiston Surgery in Swindon, has been using AI with his students at Great Western Hospital as well as the University of Bristol and the University of Bath.

Students are presented with a database of options and can then talk to and get responses from an AI patient with realistic faces and voices.

“If we can create more competent communicators we’ll hopefully have happier patients and happier doctors,” Jacobs said.

He said students often have to practise with each other or book days with actors, but AI adds to what they can use and also means students can learn more at home.

“What’s special about this, it has lots of layers to it where we’re creating real emotions, real patients that doctors, nurses, students can all train with in a safe fashion as many times as they need to to become more competent,” he added.

He said that poor communication between patients and staff can not only mean patients do not get everything they need, it can also cost the NHS money.

“There’s the rapport building, there’s sometimes the lack of detail we get from a patient which creates the misdiagnosis,” he said.

The AI patients are created using a specialist system called SimFlow.ai which develops the simulations.

Jacobs said he wants to see AI used more widely in healthcare.

“I think we need to continue innovating, we need to try to introduce this into healthcare but also take a stance where we’re looking at the results,” he added.

“We take an evidence-based approach to this. It isn’t just here’s the technology, off you go. [It is] here’s the technology, does it work? And that’s what we’re trying to answer at Great Western Hospital.”