From prototype to real healthcare environments in Spain
Metaskills and MetaMedicsVR tested AI-assisted soft-skills training across Spanish universities and hospitals, to understand what it takes to deploy communication simulations in real healthcare. 5 full pilots • additional smaller trials • 6-month project • hospital ratings above 4.2/5
The challenge highlight
Would institutions adopt it at all?
The open question was not whether the technology worked, but whether hospitals and universities would accept AI-assisted communication training inside their existing programmes.
Technical constraints
Hospital Wi-Fi, whitelisting and approval for VR devices - the things that decide whether a pilot starts on time or not at all.
Operational reality
Device management, hygiene between users, scheduling around clinical shifts and supervision during sessions.
Where we tested highlight
University · web
University of Málaga
Phase 1: browser-based access, mostly individual sessions - technical feasibility and baseline feedback.
University · web
University of Granada
Phase 1: undergraduate and postgraduate healthcare students working through communication scenarios.
Hospital · VR
Antequera Hospital
Phase 2: smaller supervised VR groups, with pre- and post-session surveys.
Hospital · VR
Materno Hospital, Málaga
Phase 2: hospital pilot with the highest reported rating of the project - 4.43/5.
University · web + VR
San Juan de Dios Comillas
Additional site covering both web and VR delivery.
How it was deployed highlight
Phase 1 · universities
Web-based, individual sessions
Students worked through scenarios in the browser. The goal was technical feasibility and a baseline of how clinicians-in-training respond to an AI counterpart.
Phase 2 · hospitals
Supervised VR groups
Smaller groups in hospitals, with supervision, pre- and post-session surveys and qualitative feedback from staff.
Oct 2025 - Mar 2026
Six-month project
The full run from first university session to the closing hospital pilot.
What we learned highlight
Result
Hospital ratings above 4.2/5
Across hospital pilots, ratings stayed above 4.2 out of 5, with 4.43/5 reported at Materno in Málaga.
Result
Demand for more scenarios
Participants asked for wider coverage, particularly psychiatry and mental health scenarios.
Insight
Integration, not a demo
Institutions expected the training to sit inside structured programmes, not to be a one-off technology showcase.
Lesson
Localisation is clinical, not linguistic
Translating a scenario is the easy part. Clinical context, terminology and cultural expectations around difficult conversations differ between countries.
Thinking about a pilot in your own institution?
We can walk you through what worked in Spain, what did not, and what your IT and clinical teams would need to agree on first. Participant numbers for this project are being confirmed and will be published once verified.