Simulation has been used extensively in the field of mental health, primarily in a patient-facing context. One example, virtual reality as a tool to augment exposure therapy has been used to help patients manage fears of flying, driving, spiders, social phobia and post-traumatic stress syndrome (Levine, et al). Simulation has also been used to help in the assessment and diagnosis of patients with mental health disorders. A group discovered that patients’ cognitive performance could be assessed using virtual clinicians.
Clinical encounters have typically been simulated through the model of “Simulated Patients”, paid actors who perform a script based on a clinical case. This approach has proven beneficial to trainees: “The process is often described as educational, both with regard to understanding mental health patients and the clinical process.” (Levine, et al).
There are however some limitations that come with the current standardized patient model. For one, portraying patients with mental disorders is considered among the most challenging for these paid actors (Levine, et al). Further, this model exposes trainees to a patient’s condition in a particular moment in time, but does not typically allow them to monitor how the patient might progress based on a treatment or therapy. Finally, there are issues of scale: the availability of talented actors nationwide imposes restrictions on how many and at what frequency standardized patients can be used for training purposes.
A software based simulation model could overcome some of the barriers facing the traditional Standardized Patient approach. The Anyma Clinic is a new, patent-pending technology currently being beta tested at Stanford University School of Medicine and other institutions that aims to revolutionize the mental health education model. Anyma’s simulated virtual patients are accessible via the web and dynamically respond to questions and provider-initiated treatments. Unlike other interview simulations, the Anyma Clinic uses real actors and provides users the ability to “ask anything” through a unique video serving algorithm. User choice is a critical feature in the Anyma Clinic simulation as it helps learners develop their own structure for patient interviews and adjust to unfolding stories and symptoms. Mental health providers can then diagnose and treat their patients by following up with them in subsequent sessions. This allows early stage practitioners to grow more comfortable with the psychiatric assessment and more advanced learners to see rare and challenging cases in a risk free environment. Future features include the ability to assess patients from both a biological and psychological formulation. In this talk, Dr. Dore of The Anyma Clinic discusses how the technology was developed, and reviews potential educational benefits and applications.
