How do I access the Virtual Patients (AI patients)?

AI-powered virtual patients are available for many of our pre-made OSCE stations, and you can also create your own.

You can interact with these virtual patients to practise communication and clinical reasoning skills. Watch a demo here.

Virtual patients are designed for solo use. If you’d prefer to practise with your study partners, check out our Group Practice Mode.

All users can talk to our virtual patients using text, free of charge. Spoken audio and face-to-face video consultations use AI credits.

Finding stations with virtual patients

The quickest way is to open OSCE stations & virtual patients in the sidebar and choose Virtual patients. This lists every station that supports one.

Virtual patients are available for several types of station, including:

History taking
Long cases
Examination
Counselling
Telephone and video consultations

Starting a consultation

Open the station and choose Virtual patient. If the Virtual patient option isn’t visible, the station does not currently support this feature.

You’ll then be asked how you’d like to consult:

Mode	What it does	Cost
Text	Type messages back and forth	Free
Audio	A real-time spoken conversation	4 AI credits, up to 15 minutes
Video	Face-to-face with a video avatar	15 AI credits, up to 10 minutes

You can also choose the consultation language on the same screen.

What happens during the station

Virtual patient stations run in stages:

Instructions - the candidate instructions, describing the scenario and what you’re expected to do (e.g. take a focused history)
Consultation - talk to the patient
Marking - click End consultation, then choose AI marking or Self mark
Questions - if the station has examiner questions, you’ll work through these after marking

Finish with Complete station to save your attempt and see your results.

Can I make my own virtual patient?

Yes! When you create or edit a station (or generate one using AI), choose a practice mode:

Classic + virtual patient - practise the station either way
Virtual patient only - a dedicated virtual patient station
Classic only - no virtual patient

Your patient script does all the work, so the more detail you provide in the patient instructions, the better the result.

The virtual patient modes only unlock once your patient instructions are at least 500 characters
They’re available for history taking, examination, counselling, long case, telephone and video consultation stations
You can update or improve the script at any time by editing the patient instructions

Virtual patients aren’t available for Nursing OSCE (NMC ToC) stations.

Updated on: 04/09/2026

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