News
The Medical Council of Canada (MCC) has awarded a research grant to a team from the Wilson Centre to study the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled virtual patients in clinical assessment. A large and diverse research team from across the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, led by co-principal investigators Dr. Kulamakan Kulasegaram, Dr. Catharine Walsh, and Dr. David Rojas, will focus on the development and evaluation of virtual patient encounters that simulate the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) format. The grant will support research that will be conducted in collaboration with the MCC and risr, a technology partner that provides an established assessment platform.
“This is an exciting moment to be thinking about the role that AI might play in the future of the MCC assessments, particularly when it comes to assessing clinical skills,” says MCC CEO Dr. Viren Naik. “We have been seeing remarkable advances in both large language models and conversational AI, making virtual patients and simulated clinical interactions a viable possibility for future assessment and training. This research will further advance that possibility.”
OSCEs are widely used in medical education and assessment, including the National Assessment Collaboration (NAC) Examination, which is administered by the MCC for international medical graduates seeking entry into medical residency programs in Canada. The format enables a standardized assessment of competencies that cannot easily be evaluated through written examinations alone, evaluating skills like medical history taking, conducting physical examinations, and communicating with patients. However, traditional OSCE delivery relies heavily on standardized patients and physician assessors, creating challenges related to cost, scalability, and consistency. This research will focus on the feasibility of virtual patient encounters that simulate the OSCE format, while providing immediate, performance-based feedback to medical candidates. Related training tools that could allow candidates to experience an OSCE-like patient encounter before taking formal examinations may support fairness, readiness, and confidence in assessment.
The Wilson Centre is an extra-departmental unit in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, and a collaboration between the University of Toronto and the University Health Network. The MCC awarded this research grant following a competitive request for proposals process that attracted a number of strong submissions.