So, how was the ‘Innovating Medical English with AI’ event?

Given the weather forecast – a rare explosion of sunshine and warmth in the UK – and that I only live 5 minutes from Brighton beach, it was perhaps with a little reluctance that I set the EALTHY Symposium in motion by hitting the start button on Zoom.

However, any misgivings about spending a Saturday on the screen were soon forgotten as the presentations began. One session after the other from across Europe and the Gulf unfurled as EALTHY members shared their thoughts, research and insights into how AI is impacting their work – from teaching history taking, writing skills, and collocations, to creating videos, listening materials and pronunciation apps, to exploring AI tools and their attendant ethical challenges.

Perhaps the highlight for me was the plenary looking at using AI avatars to simulate role plays to teach clinical communication. What Chris Jacobs and his team showed was the level and quality of interactions with AI patients in training scenarios is clearly moving incredibly quickly.

While concerns around AI were raised – how democratic is it? What about data privacy? What about the energy consumption it requires? – there’s no doubt that its use is becoming increasingly integral to education. A clear indication of this was the agreement among attendees that this should become an annual event, giving EALTHY members the opportunity to keep up with its furious pace and what that means for Medical English writing and publishing.

A huge thanks to Ros Wright and Petra Zrnikova for all their amazing work behind the scenes bringing this memorable event together. The webinar recording has now been shared with registrants, and the recordings and PowerPoints of each session will be published in the EALTHY members area shortly. If you want to see them, you can join EALTHY here – only €55 for individuals and €190 for institutions.