Federico Lorenzo Barra
MD, Attending Physician in Anesthesiology and Critical Care at University Hospital "Maggiore della Carità" (Novara, Italy), Director of Education, and healthcare simulation researcher specializing in AI-driven medical training.
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APPEARANCES
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PODCASTS
Jun 29, 2026
HadzicHOST
Barra?
5:03
In the first weeks of anesthesia training, residents are suddenly expected to perform a very complex task, speak with a patient, collect the right information, recognize perioperative risks, organize the encounter, and document everything properly.
5:20
We often assume this skill will develop naturally in clinical practice, but early exposure is not always consistent.
5:29
Some residents get excellent supervision, but others learn in a busy clinical environment where teaching opportunities are fragmented.
5:39
We wanted to explore whether an AI-driven virtual patient could offer a safe, standardized way to practice pre-anesthesia assessment before the resident is fully immersed in clinical work.
5:51
So the goal was not to replace patients or faculty in any way, but to give learners a place to rehearse.
HadzicHOST
Dr. Barra, what surprised you the most about the residents' response to the simulation?
6:42
Well, residents reported very good feedbacks from this experience and found the system easy to use, learnable, and acceptable, uh, even though many had limited prior experience with virtual reality or AI-based simulation.