The Doctor’s Assistant

Project description

The Doctor’s Assistant is a scenario game exploring near futures of data-driven healthcare. Participants are presented with three different cases of the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare settings. Each case explores increasing complexity, both procedural and ethical. Accessing information via relatable character ‘talking heads’ and news bulletins, participants are invited to consider questions around explainability, interpretability and responsibility.

When played online, the game is accessed via a web-browser; the face-to-face version is accessed on iPads. In both cases, the bespoke control system logs anonymised data on participant responses to prompts given during the game. Gathering more data each time it is played, the game provides a comprehensive body of information which can be used to inform future research in this area.

Commissioning aims

The Doctor’s Assistant was commissioned by Wellcome / EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences and NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre.

It has a dual aim of educating the public about the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare settings, and informing work done by researchers with the concerns of patients’ groups and the wider public.

Cast and creative team

WRITER Rachel Briscoe | DIRECTOR Dan Barnard | MEDIA CONTENT & TECH PLATFORM Joe McAlister | ADDITIONAL CONTENT DEVLOPMENT Yipeng Hu, Rawen Kader, Hani Marcus, Dan Taylor, Daniel Toth, Simon Watt, Ros Yu | CAST Benjamin Aluwihare, Michael Blair, Sabrina Carter, Kamaal Hussein, Keshini Misha, Yana Penrose, Jamie Zubairi