  Effective communication between a clinician and their patient is critical for
delivering healthcare maximizing outcomes. Unfortunately, traditional
communication training approaches that use human standardized patients and
expert coaches are difficult to scale. Here, we present the development and
validation of a scalable, easily accessible, digital tool known as the
Standardized Online Patient for Health Interaction Education (SOPHIE) for
practicing and receiving feedback on doctor-patient communication skills.
SOPHIE was validated by conducting an experiment with 30 participants. We found
that participants who underwent SOPHIE performed significantly better than the
control in overall communication, aggregate scores, empowering the patient, and
showing empathy ($p < 0.05$ in all cases). One day, we hope that SOPHIE will
help make communication training resources more accessible by providing a
scalable option to supplement existing resources.
