MedCerts’ Chief Product Officer Dana Janssen said the platform allows students to ask these avatars questions, then assess their conditions and develop treatment plans based on their interactions. He said the goal is to give students more confidence working in clinical environments by developing their “soft” social skills in sensitivity, professionalism and communication. He added that the use of AI in these simulations allows users to have more in-depth conversations than some other simulation programs, making the virtual experience more immersive and realistic.
“Recently, we’ve adopted AI for use in scenario-based learning, where the conversation is organic but also guided and prompted by us on the front end. But by using LLM AI like ChatGPT, that conversation takes its own shape and its own form within the set parameters that we’ve created,” he said. “You can have full interactions [with the avatars]. The avatars have their own persona in terms of whether they have a husband or a wife, kids, where they live, what town they’re from and all of that backstory about themselves.”
Janssen said simulation tools like the one developed by MedCerts allow universities to “bring the clinical environment to the learner,” and noted that several universities have already made use of their medical training modules, including Duke University, the University of Texas and Elon University.
“We have screen-based simulations where we have objects that are on screen that are 3D-animated, where a learner can manipulate and move those objects on screen. Then, we also have elements like scenario-based learning … interacting with the patient in a virtual manner,” he said.
Raj Arora, MedCerts’ senior instructional design manager, said MedCerts’ simulations make use of large language models like ChatGPT 3.5, with plans to integrate ChatGPT 4 and other tools like Bard to further enhance MedCerts’ medical and nursing modules moving forward.
“In 10 minutes, you can build a complete simulation case on this platform,” he said. “That’s the beauty of this, that content generation and content development has become so easy.”
According to Janssen, MedCerts is mainly using augmented-reality technology and screen simulations accessible via mobile devices or PCs for clinical scenario practice and studying anatomy. He said the company is considering finding ways to use MedCerts’ 3D simulation assets in full virtual-reality settings once the cost of VR devices becomes less prohibitive for students.
“That is most definitely a part of our future as we continue to evolve — with a focus on integrating VR/AR and conversational AI elements into super immersive learner experiences,” he said.
