Online Simulated Patients for Communication Skills Training

Online simulated patients for communication skills training

Effective communication is a core clinical skill, yet opportunities to practise real conversations are often limited by timetable pressure, access to simulated patients and physical simulation facilities.

Online simulated patients enable learners to practise consultations, develop communication skills and access structured feedback, all without the constraints of in-person simulation.

SimChat is an AI-powered simulation platform developed by the Geeky Medics team. It allows organisations to create, organise and deliver online simulated patient scenarios for communication skills training across their courses and departments.

What is SimChat?

SimChat is designed for institutions and organisations that want to integrate simulation into their curriculum without relying solely on in-person simulated patients.

With SimChat, you can:

• Create realistic simulated patient encounters from your existing cases and teaching materials
• Deliver text, voice or video-based simulations that feel like real consultations
• Provide learners with instant, personalised feedback on their communication
• Manage a central library of scenarios that can be reused and adapted over time

Because scenarios are built from your own content, SimChat simulations can reflect your local guidelines, pathways and assessment requirements rather than generic examples.

Simulated patients for communication skills

SimChat focuses on communication simulations. Typical use cases include:

• History taking: structuring consultations, using open questions and identifying key red flags
• Counselling scenarios: discussing new medications, risk, lifestyle change or long-term conditions
• Difficult conversations: breaking bad news, handling complaints and responding to angry patients
• Team and interprofessional communication: handovers, escalation and multidisciplinary discussions

Learners interact with the simulated patient in real time, practise how they would respond and receive feedback that supports reflection and improvement.

Turning existing materials into simulated patient scenarios

A common barrier to simulation is the time required to create new cases from scratch. SimChat is built to make use of the materials you already have, such as:

• Patient scripts for simulated patients
• OSCE station scripts
• Clinical cases

In SimChat, you can paste or import this content, define the patient background and goals for the simulation, and then generate a patient scenario in minutes. Educators can adjust the tone, complexity and learning objectives so that each simulation is appropriate for the level of learner.

Designing and running simulations in SimChat

Once a scenario is created, SimChat provides tools to deliver it consistently across your organisation.

Educators can:

• Store scenarios in a tagged central library aligned to modules or outcomes
• Choose whether learners interact via text, voice or video-based avatars
• Set permissions so that only specific cohorts or groups can access a given simulation
• Share links or embed access within existing learning platforms

Learners then work through the simulated consultation in their own time or during timetabled teaching, which makes it easier to offer repeated practice without needing additional rooms or simulated patient sessions.

Feedback and analytics

Simulation is most useful when learners can review what happened and understand how to improve. SimChat supports this by providing:

• Consultation transcripts that can be used for individual or small-group debrief
• Automated feedback on key aspects of communication, aligned with your criteria
• Cohort-level analytics to show engagement and highlight common areas of difficulty

Educators can also manually review each learner’s transcript and provide individual, tailored feedback for every simulation session.

Implementing online simulated patients in your curriculum

There are several ways to introduce SimChat within an existing programme, for example:

• Adding a small set of simulated patient encounters alongside existing communication skills sessions
• Using simulations as structured preparation before in-person simulated patient teaching
• Offering remote access simulations for students on placements or at different sites
• Developing scenario banks mapped to specific learning outcomes

Because scenarios are reusable and centrally managed, teams can gradually build a bank of communication skills simulations that support multiple cohorts and year groups.