Empathy is is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within the other person’s frame of reference, as per Wikipedia. It is an important quality for a doctor to have. It allows the doctors to forge a bond with the patient they are trying to treat.

Unfortunately when faced with the task of passing on less than positive news about the illness to the patient or their care takers and family members, doctors can be at a disadvantage. Delivering difficult news about their health needs to be done in a caring and empathetic manner.

This usually comes with practice. Again, the new doctors and interns do not have the advantage of years of experience to learn this. So Michigan Medicine School at the University of Michigan has decided to give them some practice. By allowing them to speak to virtual people in a new science project.

Lifelike humans are seen on a computer screen and supposed to be patients and relatives. The medical student is told about the condition that they need to communicate in a supportive and caring manner. They are then judged on their delivery, words, body language, etc., to see just how good a job they did.