The decisions I never rehearsed
My first-year interns were anxious about leading rapid responses. Talking with the chief residents about moving up to second year, they said they hadn’t had enough rapid response experience.
The day before, I had been at a film screening. One film was almost entirely AI-generated, and it was strikingly realistic and cinematic.
The interns’ worry took me back to my time as a junior attending, working solo at a rural hospital. Late one Friday afternoon, a patient developed status epilepticus. The in-person neurologist had left the hospital. With little prior experience managing status epilepticus, I learned on the go, making major decisions I had never rehearsed.
Sim labs and oral-board-style practice are some of the best rehearsal we have. But they cannot cover every case.
The film, my interns’ anxiety and that Friday afternoon came together: if AI can make a film that real, perhaps it can help us build a virtual training ground for every case, maybe one day with AI video.
That idea became Vocation of Care: VOC.
Institution not named by request.