SimPat: Innovating Medical Education

After seven years of study at The University of Edinburgh Medical School, David’s academic and personal experiences gave him a first-hand understanding of the challenges faced by medical students. One of the biggest hurdles was the lack of affordable, high-quality resources to prepare for practical examinations. These exams involve simulated patient scenarios to assess diagnostic and communication skills, yet existing resources were limited, expensive, and often lacked diversity in terms of patient demographics.

Recognising this gap, David leveraged the emerging capabilities of generative AI, which combined his interests in coding, business, and healthcare. With this, he embarked on the ambitious task of developing a platform that could provide students with diverse, accessible, and cost-free resources.

With the help of £5,000 from the Student Experience Grant, today, SimPat boasts over 500 patient cases. This offers the largest free repository of its kind and setting a benchmark for inclusivity by representing a wide range of socio-demographic backgrounds and medical conditions.

“The grant made all the difference; It allowed us to move faster, build a polished website, and start paying qualified contributors to create high-quality content.”

SimPat’s global reach is ever expanding, with users from 33 countries already benefiting from the platform. The SimPat team still aims to triple its content library to over 2,000 cases, ensuring comprehensive coverage of medical scenarios while maintaining its commitment to being a free resource. 

“We want enough cases that no student ever feels they need more; Our goal is to keep all the resources free, accessible, and representative of the real world. Our aim of 2,000+ patient cases this year is more than all current patient cases from all resources currently combined (and all which paid for currently) or how the current most used resource has around 1,300 cases and naturally is paid for too.” 

SimPat Innovations Ltd

David Bourne - SimPat | Edinburgh Innovation

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