Garber, Fadden, Feldman, and Curtis
Educational Innovation/Educational Research Award
Adam Garber, M.D.
Patrick Fadden, M.D.,
Moshe Feldman, Ph.D.
Cana Curtis, B.S.
Department: School of Medicine
As a team, Drs. Adam Garber, Patrick Fadden, and Moshe Feldman, along with Research Analyst Cana Curtis, have embarked on a truly groundbreaking collaborative journey that positions VCU at the forefront of medical education for their use of progressive technologies that improve core educational processes, notably their pioneering application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs). Recognizing the "Assessment Burden" on medical schools and the labor-intensive nature of manually reviewing qualitative feedback, Dr. Feldman envisioned a solution leveraging AI and natural language processing (NLP). This novel approach, initiated when AI was scarcely used in medical education, evolved over three years into a sophisticated system capable of classifying supervising physician and resident feedback quality with 85% accuracy, a significant leap from an initial 40%. Drs. Garber and Fadden provided crucial medical expertise, scoring feedback examples to train the machine learning algorithms. Their foresight is evident in their national presentations on using AI for acting internships as early as 2024, well ahead of the curve compared to broader educational trends. Ms. Curtis has been instrumental in data mining and evaluation analysis using their AI model to allow ongoing analysis of additional years of data while ensuring its accuracy. They now provide individualized faculty feedback on the quality of their evaluations at scale using their results, with the intention of improving evaluation quality and actionable feedback to students.
Dr. Fadden recognized the benefit of utilizing AI in medical education to assist in assigning patient care performance designations to students, using the RIME scale based off of numerous clerkship evaluations. He teamed up with Dr. Garber on this project to help reduce biases that could be present within evaluations and grading committees by providing a designation rationale, in order to compare these results to those of the Internal Medicine clerkship grading committee. While not yet used in practice, this validation and proof of concept phase could lead to accepted use for this purpose, significantly improving efficiency and accuracy in grading and potentially streamlining the process by leading to better utilization of grading committee faculty time to manually review the more challenging cases. Another powerful component of their project is their application of Virtual Reality (VR), including AI-enabled VR, and Mixed Reality (MR) for creating immersive learning experiences. Dr. Garber secured a prestigious Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation President’s Grant for his project: Teaching Effective Interprofessional Collaboration during Acute Patient Scenarios via Artificial Intelligence-Facilitated Virtual Reality Simulations. This initiative developed an immersive, competency-based dynamic learning experience using VR headsets, allowing students to manage unstable patients and interact with AI-driven avatars of nurses and patients in a real-time simulation, better emulating reality. Such high-stakes scenarios foster critical clinical decision-making, teamwork, and ethical reasoning, offering a powerful and scalable training tool with national dissemination potential. Dr. Garber's work in this area also extends to using MR and VR to teach complex procedures like lumbar punctures and cross-coverage skills, highlighting his consistent pursuit of cutting-edge technology to advance medical education.
Dr. Feldman's foundational research on the variability in ACGME Harmonized Milestones across numerous programs directly informed their collaborative AI project, demonstrating their holistic approach to improving assessment systems. Dr. Fadden's involvement in developing an AAMC toolkit for student presentation skills further underscores their commitment to fundamental educational improvements. Their work aims to make the assessment process more fair, consistent, and effective in preparing future physicians for their careers. Drs. Garber, Fadden, and Feldman, as well as Ms. Curtis, represent a remarkable team of talent – “individual stars” who make up an “influential constellation,” pushing the boundaries of medical education through their visionary integration of AI and VR, their dedication to educational research, and their refinement to core curricula and assessment practices.