We’re proud to announce that we have partnered with the Royal Society of Medicine to create exclusive healthcare training simulations powered by artificial intelligence and virtual reality.
The innovative modules developed through the partnership will allow doctors and other healthcare professionals to learn and practice essential, patient-centred soft skills.
The training takes place in a virtual environment and can be experienced with a VR headset or in front of a display screen. This offers an innovative way of enhancing soft skill development in a safe digital space.
On entering the virtual environment, the user will play out a scenario, interacting with an AI avatar. They will then ‘swap’ bodies with the avatar, while the scenario is played back to them, providing them with detailed feedback on what they said, how they said it and, in the full version, non-verbal communication, such as body language and eye contact.
Interacting with an AI avatar, not a real person, is believed to lower the inhibitions that some find can stifle progress in human-to-human training scenarios.
The software is already used in over 100 organisations globally and has recently been deployed to help mental-health practitioners prepare for conversations with patients suffering from acute anxiety.
Professor Mary Bishop, Director of Learning at the Royal Society of Medicine, said
We want to work with the very best partners and are excited to bring our cutting-edge solution to this project, collaborating with a centuries-old yet forward-thinking institution in the Royal Society of Medicine.
This is a unique opportunity to make medical learning truly experiential in an area that has been underserved.
Professor Mary Bishop
To ensure academic rigour and specialist knowledge, the RSM has contracted a leading expert in improving healthcare professionals’ communication with patients. Professor Dame Lesley Fallowfield, Professor of Psycho-Oncology at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, will advise on course content.
Professor Bishop added:
Professor Mary Bishop
Development is already underway on the first course module, which will be co-created and tested during beta stages with student and trainee members of the RSM.