Revolutionizing Medical Education: How Mission is Helping DxR Development Group Transform Clinical Training with AI
Executive Summary
DxR Development Group, a pioneer in medical education software since 1992, teamed up with Mission to modernize their clinical training platform and integrate advanced AI capabilities. Through Mission's expertise, DxR is revolutionizing how medical students develop clinical reasoning skills, transforming traditional case-based learning into an interactive, AI-powered experience. This partnership is setting new standards for medical education and improving patient outcomes.
About Netfor
DxR Development Group is a medical education software company that develops virtual patient software for medical schools, nurse practitioner programs, physician assistant programs, undergraduate nursing programs, physical therapy programs, and chiropractic programs. Their software specializes in teaching and assessing clinical reasoning skills through curated case studies based on real-life medical scenarios.
Background
DxR Development Group has been iterating on the same codebase since transitioning to web-based delivery in 2000. Recognizing the need to modernize their platform and leverage AI capabilities, they sought a partner to help transform their educational software for today's standards.
Challenge
DxR Development Group faced several critical challenges in modernizing its platform. Their existing software, while robust in clinical reasoning assessment and reporting, needed significant updates to meet modern standards. They needed to leverage AI to enhance the realism of patient interactions and improve the efficiency of both student learning and instructor assessment processes. The company also needed to transform its traditional question-selection interface into a more dynamic, conversational experience while maintaining its core strength in identifying "zebra" cases - rare conditions that present like common ones. These challenges required expertise in healthcare, education, and AI integration.
Why Mission
DxR Development Group chose Mission based on Amazon's strong recommendation as the best partner for healthcare, health education, and AI initiatives. According to Robert Evans, President and CEO of DxR Development Group, "Mission was really the best choice for our area, which is healthcare, health education, and AI." The decision was further supported by Mission's rapid response and ability to deliver results quickly, with Evans noting their impressive ability to "put together a package that we can show potential investors and our clients... in literally under a two-week period."
Why AWS
Since 2014, DxR Development Group has relied on AWS for its cloud infrastructure. The transition from physical servers to AWS provided them with remote management capabilities essential for their distributed team. As Evans explains, "AWS brings a very wide and robust range of services and offerings that I feel like we've just touched the surface of, but plan to get into much more deeply."
Solution
Mission is helping DxR Development Group develop DxR Harmony, a comprehensive medical education platform that unifies their various product lines. The first phase, targeted for a January 2025 release, focuses on creating a realistic patient interview experience using AI chatbot technology and metahuman interfaces. This transforms the traditional selection-based questioning into natural language interactions, eliminating what Evans calls "queuing" - where listed questions might inadvertently prompt students.
The solution leverages various AWS technologies, including Amazon Bedrock, AWS Fargate for Amazon ECS, and other AI services. The project, accelerated through Amazon's MAP program, has progressed rapidly, with Mission delivering a 50% working prototype within just one month of development. This modern platform will enable more efficient learning, enhanced assessment capabilities, and improved clinical reasoning skills development.
Results
The partnership with Mission has already yielded significant results for DxR Development Group. The rapid development pace has positioned them to launch their MVP in January, transforming their traditional interface into an AI-powered, interactive experience. The project has opened new possibilities for expansion into emergency medicine and other specialties.
Evans emphasizes the transformative impact of the partnership: "Without the MAP program, without that initial interest from Amazon, response back from Amazon, this project probably would still be kind of waiting in the wings." The collaboration has enabled DxR to pursue ambitious goals that were previously constrained by resources, with Evans noting, "Working with Mission, I've been very excited about the things we can do with AI."
The new platform promises to revolutionize medical education by making content more attainable and relatable while lowering barriers to education. As Evans states, "The goal with all of this is better patient outcomes for the people they treat across the board."
This transformation positions DxR Development Group at the forefront of medical education technology, ready to shape the future of clinical training.