The best way to understand PCS.ai products is to see them in action. That's why we run Lunch & Learns: 30 minutes, a live demo, and your questions answered in real time. We kicked off the series with SimVox (catch the recording here), and this session put Spark in the spotlight.
Nick Stoick, VP of Sales & Partnerships, ran three Spark scenarios: Alex, an adult with chest pain; George, a stroke patient; and Violet, a sick kiddo who came in with her mom. Here are the questions those scenarios answered, along with what you'd have seen on screen.
Spark at a glance
Jump to a question:
Spark is a virtual patient platform, and it's been around since 2019. Learners talk to a 3D patient in their own words, examine them, order tests, treat them, and get scored on all of it.
55+ scenarios out of the box. They cover outpatient care, acute care, mental health, women's health, and pediatrics. You can also build your own cases, so the library isn't the limit.
Two ways:
Nick ran the demo on his computer, but learners can also use a tablet, a phone, or a VR headset.
No. Nick opened with "What brings you into the hospital today?" and followed up on onset, severity, shortness of breath, and radiation. Alex answered with details specific to the case: the pain started the evening before while he was watching TV, he rated it 6 out of 10, and it had spread to his back and left shoulder blade.
There's no menu of questions to pick from. Learners have to work out the right line of questioning themselves, which is exactly the skill you're trying to build.
PCS.ai built and tuned its own model in-house. That focus pays off in three ways:
Yes, a complete head-to-toe exam. When Nick clicked Physical Exam, Alex lay down supine and a tray of tools appeared:
Adjustable difficulty: To make a case harder, remove the written "no abnormal findings" notes so learners have to read the images on their own.
Yes. Alex's monitor showed low SpO2 and a high respiratory rate from the start. In the Diagnose & Treat window, Nick:
Ordered tests stay listed for review, and treatments change the vitals, so learners see the effect of what they do.
They get feedback the moment the simulation ends. Nick's demo run scored 40%, and the assessment showed exactly why: strong history of present illness, but no past medical, social, or family history. Learners can open each category to see what they asked and what they missed.
Now they can. George Callahan, one of Spark's newest scenarios, is having a stroke, and you can hear it in his slurred speech as he explains that his students said his face looked like it was drooping.
Yes. Violet is a pediatric patient in a hospital bed with her mom at her side. Learners can direct a question to either one. Otherwise, whoever is the more natural person to answer will respond.
Violet said she had a bad cough, her chest hurt, and she wanted to go home and watch Netflix. Her mom explained that the school nurse had sent Violet home with a 101-degree fever.
That Netflix line is intentional. PCS.ai has tuned its pediatric patients to talk like real kids. Ask one to rate their pain from 1 to 10, and you might hear "a million." Kids are so dramatic 😊
This session covered what learners' experience. The next Lunch & Learn covers the faculty side: patient authoring on the pcs.ai platform. We'll edit a case live and show how fast the changes reach learners. Sign up here.
Want to see Spark with your own scenarios? Email sales@pcs.ai to set up a one-on-one demo with Nick, Erik, Marcus, or Read.