Virtual patients making fans of actual physicians
An AI startup’s virtual-patient technology is good enough at teaching empathy to clinicians that it’s already in use at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, the National Health Service in Britain and the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
The toolkit has also caught the eye of a Washington Post reporter whose main beat is innovations.
A version of the technology developed and marketed by U.K.-based Virti uses cloud-based speech recognition, AI and computer-generated characters to simulate realistic interactions with patients, writes Post reporter Dalvin Brown.
“[If] a clinician asks the animated human to describe its symptoms, the AI will generate a relevant response. … For greater immersion, the company can supply physicians with virtual reality headsets.”
Brown speaks with Dr. Alex Young, the orthopedic surgeon who founded the company, and with a podiatrist who ordered Virti to take it for a test drive while under a COVID lockdown.
In-person scenarios featuring “injured” play-actors can “feel a bit forced,” the podiatrist tells the Post. By contrast, he says, fake patients “feel much more authentic than somebody making it up as they go along.”
WaPo article here.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.