A University of Auckland-developed artificial intelligence (AI) project will be able to train medical students to be more empathetic and patient-focused, according to its developer.
“Empathy leads to better outcomes for the patient and better adherence to the treatment plan. It also reduces stress and burnout for healthcare professionals and improves their job satisfaction,” said doctoral candidate Monika Byrne of the university’s Speech Science and Centre for Medical and Health Science Education.
Byrne said AI will not replace the need to train with actors or real patients but will provide students opportunities to practice engaging with empathy before their clinical placements. She said it will also save universities money, compared with using actors, and will be engaging by gamifying learning. It will also teach students how to relate to people who are very different to themselves, including culturally.
Byrne described how humans build a cognitive library of experiences and emotions that go with them – such as what it’s like to be in emotional pain, to lose a partner or to fail. “We don’t necessarily have to feel it in our own bodies to exhibit empathy, but we need to have experienced something like it before.”
Scientists at the University of Florida’s Virtual Experiences Research Group are assisting Byrne in the technical aspects of building virtual patients. Byrne said she intends to adapt five virtual patients to give them ability to express emotions and preferences and ask questions, before running pilots as and conducting a randomised, controlled trial.
