A Queen’s University Belfast medical student has developed an AI-powered platform that allows aspiring doctors to practise clinical consultations with animated virtual patients – helping them identify what they may have missed before they face real patients.

Abhay Shivamurthy, 22, developed Virtual Medic after finding that practising consultations with friends while preparing for his own medical school practical exams could feel artificial and provided limited feedback on his performance.

The platform allows medical students to speak naturally with virtual patients, ask about symptoms and medical history, and receive structured feedback showing what they covered, what they missed and how they could improve.

Abhay, originally from Newcastle-under-Lyme, is one of ten STEM-focused finalists in the ESBF Champion of Champions competition, which brings together some of the UK’s most promising student and graduate innovations.

The competition is the culmination of scores of university enterprise competitions that have taken place across the UK, funded by business education charity ESBF (Engineers and Scientists in Business Fellowship).

Learning how to communicate effectively with patients is a key part of medical training, but tutors cannot observe every consultation and practising with fellow students can make it difficult to assess performance objectively.

Virtual Medic is designed to give students an opportunity to practise repeatedly and receive detailed feedback after every session. The consultations also reflect the format of OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Examinations) – the practical exams used by medical schools to assess clinical skills.

The platform allows universities to create their own cases using teaching material and marking criteria, while educators can track student progress and use the information to help identify areas where additional teaching may be needed.

Abhay said: “I came up with Virtual Medic over two years ago while preparing for my second-year medical school practical exams.

“Practising consultations with friends often felt artificial: someone was reading from a script, and I was trying to judge my own performance while also focusing on the patient. I could practise repeatedly without knowing whether I was improving.

“The night I finished my exams, I started building Virtual Medic. Since then, I have developed it myself alongside my medical degree, combining my experience as a student with my interest in technology.

“I learnt early on that a product is only useful if you can communicate its value and build relationships with the people who need it.

“Working alone, I kept adding features that I thought would help. Putting Virtual Medic in the hands of tutors and students, then listening to their feedback, gave me a clearer picture of what needed improving.

“Business skills help turn those conversations into decisions about development, pricing and adoption. They also help founders manage costs, plan growth and build something sustainable, so a promising idea can continue delivering value beyond its initial development.”

After competing in an ESBF-funded enterprise competition at Queen’s University Belfast, Abhay will now take Virtual Medic to the Royal Academy of Engineering in London for the Champion of Champions final in November. Ten finalists will receive expert coaching from ESBF’s Sainsbury Management Fellows community before pitching their innovations in a live, dragons’ den-style final for a share of £16,500 in prize money and business mentoring.

Abhay added: “Champion of Champions is an opportunity to develop the business skills needed to take Virtual Medic beyond a working product. The competition could raise awareness of Virtual Medic and help me build relationships with educators and potential collaborators. My next priority is to expand student trials and gather evidence to guide improvements and support wider adoption.”

Robbie Mulvenna-Jamison, Enterprise Development Officer at Queen’s University Belfast, said: “QUB SU Enterprise is extremely proud of Abhay’s success in making it to the final of this year’s ‘ESBF Champion of Champions’ competition. It is greatly rewarding to see Abhay’s continued success which is testament to his passion for developing a medical solution that can benefit many potential users. Virtual Medic in an incredibly exciting innovation which caught the attention of the judging panel at the 2026 QUB Dragons’ Den competition, and we’re all excited to see how Abhay progresses with his innovation!”

The ESBF Champion of Champions competition is now in its eighth year and is designed to showcase and support the entrepreneurial STEM talent emerging from UK universities. This year’s finalists are developing innovations addressing challenges ranging from healthcare and aviation safety to kidney disease, employability, antibiotic resistance and mosquito-borne disease.

Find out more about all the finalists, with a public vote for the £500 pre-show audience prize now open on the ESBF website.