What You Need To Know
The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine is proud to announce a $1 million commitment from COTU and its co-founders — Zachary Smith, chief executive officer, and Michael Crisafulli, chief operating officer, to launch a cutting-edge virtual patient platform powered by machine learning (ML) and mixed reality (MR). This visionary gift will fund the development of an innovative dual-platform curriculum designed to prepare the next generation of physicians for leadership in data-driven and technology-enabled health.
Building on the success of the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine’s Health Care Strategy elective— created by Mohammed Quadri, M.D., MBA, vice president of Strategy for Academics, Research & Innovation at Hackensack Meridian Health— this new ML-driven platform will further enhance students’ hands-on learning. In collaboration with Sameer Sethi, senior vice president, chief AI and insights officer at Hackensack Meridian Health, Dr. Quadri will lead the design of advanced virtual patient experiences, ensuring future physicians gain critical skills in data-driven care and technology integration.
The dual-platform initiative includes:
- ML-Powered Virtual Patients: Enhanced virtual patient platforms will incorporate advanced language models, personalized learning paths and integration with Hackensack Meridian Health’s proprietary ML tools. Students will learn realistic clinical decision-making through dynamic, branching case scenarios, advanced prompt engineering to guide ML tools, ethical use of ML with focused training on bias identification and mitigation and real-world applications using Hackensack Meridian Health’s ML integration framework.
- Mixed Reality Holographic Module: Students will engage with 3D anatomy and pathology, enabling immersive surgical simulation with haptic feedback, direct links between virtual patients and holographic visualization for more cohesive learning and improved spatial reasoning and procedural competency.
This platform will also transform medical education for the students by bridging theory and practice through immersive, experiential learning, allowing for enhanced clinical and diagnostic proficiency and ethical and confident use of ML in clinical settings.
A portion of this gift will also support strategic market research and pilot testing to ensure optimal platform selection, seamless curriculum integration and refinement before full-scale implementation.