Question 1

What is MedAscend?

Accepted Answer

MedAscend is an AI-powered clinical training platform that helps institutions scale realistic simulated encounters, feedback, and assessment across healthcare education.

Question 2

Who is MedAscend for?

Accepted Answer

MedAscend is designed for universities, healthcare training providers, and multidisciplinary programmes including medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and allied health.

Question 3

What can learners do on the platform?

Accepted Answer

Learners can take part in realistic video and voice encounters with AI patients, relatives, and colleagues, then receive immediate structured feedback.

Question 4

Can institutions create their own scenarios?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Institutions can build and tailor their own scenarios to match their curriculum, teaching goals, and learner level.

Question 5

Does MedAscend support more than patient history taking?

Accepted Answer

Yes. It can support a wide range of communication-based scenarios including reviews, counselling, mental health conversations, breaking bad news, and staff-to-staff communication.

Question 6

Does MedAscend support different professions?

Accepted Answer

Yes. MedAscend is built for multidisciplinary healthcare education, not just medicine.

Question 7

What equipment do we need to use MedAscend?

Accepted Answer

MedAscend runs in the browser with no hard downloads required. Institutions do not need specialist equipment or headsets to get started. A stable internet connection is sufficient, and the platform can run on standard devices used across teaching environments.

Question 8

What internet connection is required to run MedAscend?

Accepted Answer

MedAscend is designed to work with standard institutional internet setups. As a guide, we recommend at least 5 Mbps upload speed for a smooth experience during AI simulated consultations.

Question 9

Can MedAscend be used in immersive rooms or simulation suites?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Because MedAscend is delivered as a web app, it can be used in immersive rooms, simulation suites, and other teaching spaces. Institutions can set up virtual clinics, consultation rooms, or scenario-based environments around the platform.

Question 10

How is MedAscend different from other AI simulation providers?

Accepted Answer

MedAscend is designed to go beyond generic virtual patient simulation. Institutions can use highly realistic avatar-based consultations (with patients, relatives, colleagues or members of the public) as standalone practice, or extend training into clinical reasoning, documentation and EPR-style workflows where relevant. The platform is tailored to institutional curricula, learning outcomes and assessment models, rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all approach.

Question 11

Is MedAscend just a virtual patient tool?

Accepted Answer

No. MedAscend goes beyond single-encounter communication practice. It supports broader clinical decision-making, documentation, and structured educational use cases, including OSCE-style pathways and institution-defined learning outcomes.

Question 12

How does MedAscend support assessment and curriculum alignment?

Accepted Answer

MedAscend is tailored to each institution rather than using a one-size-fits-all model. Scenarios, marking approaches, and feedback can be aligned to local or national frameworks, including standards used across medicine and nursing. For example, institutions may map learning to frameworks such as GMC and NMC requirements in the UK, and to LCME standards for MD-granting medical schools or COCA standards for osteopathic medical schools in the US.

Question 13

Can we use our own marking rubric?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Institutions can embed their own marking criteria and performance domains within the platform.

Question 14

What kind of feedback do learners receive?

Accepted Answer

Learners receive immediate, contextualised feedback linked to their consultation performance, including strengths, gaps, and areas for improvement.

Question 15

Can MedAscend be used for OSCE preparation?

Accepted Answer

Yes. MedAscend supports OSCE-style practice and includes OSCE Circuits, our OSCE Circuit Mode for structured multi-station delivery.

Question 16

Can performance be reviewed across a cohort?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Institutions can review learner performance patterns and broader cohort insights.

Question 17

How is MedAscend usually introduced?

Accepted Answer

Most institutions begin with a demo, followed by a pilot or focused rollout based on their teaching goals.

Question 18

Can MedAscend fit into existing teaching?

Accepted Answer

Yes. It can be used for self-directed study, timetabled teaching, blended simulation, interprofessional learning, and OSCE preparation.

Question 19

Do educators stay in control of content?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Institutions remain in control of their scenarios, rubric design, and educational use.

Question 20

Can students access it remotely?

Accepted Answer

Yes. MedAscend supports flexible access, making it suitable for both on-campus and remote use.

Question 21

How is pricing structured?

Accepted Answer

MedAscend uses a session credit model rather than charging by cohort size. This allows pricing to work for both smaller and larger institutions, depending on expected usage.

Question 22

Is pricing based on number of students?

Accepted Answer

No. Pricing is not capped by cohort size. It is based on session credits, which gives institutions flexibility in how they deploy the platform across learners and programmes.

Question 23

Can MedAscend work for both small and large institutions?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The session credit model is designed to support institutions of different sizes, from smaller pilots to large-scale rollouts.

Question 24

Can we start small and scale later?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Institutions can begin with a package that suits their current needs and expand usage over time.

Question 25

How do we get pricing?

Accepted Answer

The best next step is to book a demo so we can understand your use case and recommend the right session credit package.

Question 26

Where is institutional and learner data stored?

Accepted Answer

MedAscend stores data on UK and EU-based infrastructure with encryption in transit and at rest. Institutions retain ownership of their scenarios, rubrics and learner records.

Question 27

Is MedAscend GDPR compliant?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The platform is built to UK GDPR and EU GDPR standards, with role-based access, audit trails and configurable data retention. We sign DPAs with every institution.

Question 28

Are AI conversations recorded and how are transcripts handled?

Accepted Answer

Transcripts of learner encounters are generated for feedback and assessment, and retained according to your institution's policies. As standard, audio and video are not processed or stored, only the transcript is captured, and nothing is used to train third-party models.

Question 29

Is your AI trained on our institution's or students' data?

Accepted Answer

No. Institutional and learner data is never used to train our AI or any third-party models as standard. The only exception is where an institution has explicitly consented in writing to contribute data for model improvement, and even then it is handled under the terms agreed in that arrangement.

Question 30

How does a typical pilot work?

Accepted Answer

Most pilots run for 4–8 weeks with a defined cohort, a small number of scenarios and a clear set of learning outcomes and success metrics. We support setup, faculty onboarding and a structured review at the end.

Question 31

What evidence do you have from previous pilots?

Accepted Answer

Recent pilots, including with the University of Dundee, have shown measurable gains in OSCE confidence and consultation performance, with strong learner uptake when scenarios are mapped to local curricula.

Question 32

How quickly can we get a pilot live?

Accepted Answer

Once scope is agreed, most pilots can be live within 2–4 weeks, depending on scenario authoring needs and SSO configuration.

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