Overview

We are exploring using virtual characters to help educate patient-doctor communication skills. Our current system allows medical students to interview DIANA, a virtual patient. Students interact with DIANA naturally using speech and gestures. A virtual instructor, VIC, provides immediate feedback on the student’s performance.

DIANA, the virtual patient, complains of acute abdominal pain.

Head tracking data shows where the medical student is looking during the interview. This student looked mostly at DIANA's head and thus maintained adequate eye-contact for the scenario.

Extended Project Description

Project Poster

Publications

• Johnsen, K., R. Dickerson, A. Raij, B. Lok, J. Jackson, M.Shin, J. Hernandez, A. Stevens, D. S. Lind. "Experiences in Using Immersive Virtual Characters to Educate Medical Communication Skills." To Appear in Proceedings of IEEE Virtual Reality 2005 (VR 2005). Bonn, Germany, March 2005.
• Dickerson, R., K. Johnsen, A. Raij, B. Lok, J. Hernandez, A. Stevens. "Evaluating a Script-Based Approach for Simulating Patient-Doctor Interaction." 2005 International Conference on Human-Computer Interface Advances for Modeling and Simulation (SIMCHI 2005). New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, January 2005.
• Stevens, Amy, Jonathan Hernandez, Kyle Johnsen, Robert Dickerson, Andrew Raij, Jonathan Jackson, Min Shin, Juan Cendan, Margaret Duerson, Benjamin Lok, D. Scott Lind. "The Use of Virtual Patients to Teach Medical Students Communication Skills." To appear in Proceedings of the Association of Surgical Education 2005.

Media Coverage

Video

• Dennis Miller Show (MSNBC)
• KBCD NewsChannel 11 - Lubbock, Texas.
• NBC Channel 5 - Chicago, IL (click for video)

  

• News Channel - West Palm Beach, FL

Print

• CliniCum (in German) - Austrian medical magazine
• Calgary Herald
• National Post (Canada)
• Vancouver Sun
• Ottawa Citizen
• Edmonton Journal
• Gainesville Sun
• University of Florida News
• Science Daily
• Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends
• ACM TechNews | Tech-Community
• Mirabilis.ca
• NewsTrove.com

Team Members

• University of Florida, College of Engineering, Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering
  • Benjamin Lok, Ph.D. Assistant Professor
  • Kyle Johnsen, Ph.D. Student
  • Andrew Raij, Ph.D. Student
  • Robert Dickerson, Undergraduate Student
• University of Florida, College of Medicine
  • D. Scott Lind, MD
  • Amy Stevens, MD
  • Marc S. Cohen, MD
  • Margaret Duerson, Ph.D.
  • Juan Cendan, MD
  • Jonathan Hernandez, Medical Student
• University of Florida, College of Education
  • Richard Ferdig, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
  • Meredith DiPietro, Ph.D. Student
  • Sebastian Foti, Ph.D. (UF Foundation)
• Medical College of Georgia
  • Peggy Wagner, MD
  • Ruth Fincher, MD
• University of North Carolina at Charlotte
  • Min Shin, Ph.D. Assistant Professor
  • Jonathan Jackson, MS

Research Sponsors

• Medical College of Georgia
• College of Medicine Chapman Education Center
• University of Florida, CISE Department

This project uses Haptek, Inc. characters.