ZWIP

An AI voice examiner in every candidate’s pocket

Product strategy & positioningBrand identity & namingUX / UI design systemReal-time voice-AI engineGMC-aligned scoring modelClinical station content libraryPerformance analytics dashboardMarketing website, auth & billing

ZWIP homepage — AI-powered PLAB 2 OSCE practice with realistic simulated patients

Client: ZWIP
Industry: education
Challenge: PLAB 2 success comes down to hours of realistic, spoken clinical practice — but reps are expensive and scarce. Study partners are hard to find, courses cost thousands, and feedback is subjective and rarely mapped to the GMC domains that actually score. International graduates, often new to the UK, are the least served and the most anxious.
Key Results: 9 PLAB 2 station types, 3 GMC domains scored

0PLAB 2 station types

0GMC domains scored

0Voice minutes / month

0/7On-demand practice

Project Overview

ZWIP is an AI-powered PLAB 2 OSCE simulator that lets international medical graduates rehearse realistic, voice-based clinical consultations with AI simulated patients — and get instant feedback aligned to GMC marking criteria. Aethus designed and built the product end-to-end: brand, UX, the real-time voice-AI engine, the GMC-aligned scoring model and the web presence.

The Challenge

PLAB 2 success comes down to hours of realistic, spoken clinical practice — but reps are expensive and scarce. Study partners are hard to find, courses cost thousands, and feedback is subjective and rarely mapped to the GMC domains that actually score. International graduates, often new to the UK, are the least served and the most anxious.

Our Solution

A voice-first AI OSCE simulator. Candidates practise unlimited spoken consultations with clinically accurate AI patients across 9 station types, then receive structured scoring across the three GMC domains — Data Gathering, Clinical Management and Interpersonal Skills — plus a progress dashboard and exam countdown. Aethus delivered the whole product: strategy, brand, design, the real-time voice-AI engineering, scoring and the marketing site.

The brief

Passing PLAB 2 is the gateway for international medical graduates to practise in the UK — and it is ruthlessly practical. Candidates face a circuit of live OSCE stations: short, timed clinical scenarios with a simulated patient, marked against strict GMC criteria. The single biggest predictor of success is reps — hours of realistic, spoken practice with honest feedback.

The problem is that reps are expensive and hard to come by. Study partners are scarce, courses cost thousands, and feedback is subjective and inconsistent. ZWIP set out to fix that — and asked Aethus to design and build the entire product, from the voice engine to the brand.

A live ZWIP voice consultation in progress — the AI simulated patient is speaking — A live ZWIP station — the candidate holds a real, spoken conversation with an AI simulated patient in real time.

How it works

ZWIP turns any laptop into a private OSCE circuit. A candidate picks a station, reads a short scenario brief, and then speaks — out loud — to a voice-first AI patient that responds naturally, answers questions, shows emotion, and follows a clinically accurate script that adapts to how the consultation is led.

When the station ends, ZWIP scores the encounter across the three domains real examiners use — Data Gathering, Clinical Management, and Interpersonal Skills — and returns specific, actionable feedback. No partner, no scheduling, no travel.

0Clinical station types

0GMC scoring domains

Real-timeAI patient dialogue

£79Launch price / quarter

A ZWIP station briefing with a structured simulated-patient persona, presenting complaint and task

Engineering a patient that feels real

The hardest part of a voice-first product is latency. A patient that pauses for three seconds breaks the illusion instantly. We built a streaming voice pipeline — speech-to-text, a clinically-grounded dialogue model, and text-to-speech — tuned so replies begin the moment the candidate stops speaking.

Every patient is driven by a structured clinical persona — name, age, history, presenting complaint and hidden concerns — so the AI stays medically accurate and on-scenario while still improvising natural, conversational responses.

The ZWIP dashboard showing voice minutes remaining, exam countdown and score progress — The candidate dashboard — voice-minute allowance, a live exam countdown, score progress and one-tap access to the next station.

Scoring the way examiners do

Feedback is only useful if it mirrors the real mark scheme. ZWIP evaluates every consultation against the same three GMC domains examiners apply, scores each out of four for a total out of twelve against a clear pass mark, then translates that into concrete guidance — what was missed in the history, where management could be safer, how to communicate with more warmth and clarity.

It even surfaces key moments from the transcript, quoting exactly what the candidate said and why it worked — turning every attempt into a targeted coaching session.

ZWIP station feedback scoring 9 out of 12, broken down across the three GMC domains — Structured, examiner-style feedback — an overall score against the pass mark, per-domain breakdown, strengths, and specific areas to improve.

The ZWIP PLAB 2 station library covering every OSCE station type — A full PLAB 2 station library — every OSCE station type

Configuring a single practice station or a full timed mock exam in ZWIP — Single stations or a full, timed mock examination

Personalised AI coaching in ZWIP with domain scores and improvement areas — Personalised AI coaching across the GMC domains

The built-in PLAB 2 glossary of clinical terms and frameworks in ZWIP — A built-in PLAB 2 glossary and learning resources

A brand that earns clinical trust

Medical candidates are discerning and stressed. The identity had to feel calm, credible and modern — clinical enough to be trusted, human enough to be reassuring. We built the name, the audio-waveform logomark, the gradient colour system, typography and a full UI kit as one coherent system across product and web, with light and dark modes throughout.

“Every candidate deserves a patient who never gets tired, never judges, and is available at 3am the night before the exam.”

The shift we enabled

ZWIP launched as a complete, self-serve product: candidates sign up, start a free station with no card required, and practise unlimited spoken consultations with instant, examiner-style feedback — for a fraction of the cost of a single coaching session.

The roadmap already extends the same engine to MRCP (PACES), MRCS (OSCE) and MRCGP (CSA) — turning ZWIP from a PLAB 2 tool into a platform for clinical exam preparation.

0Study partners required

0/7On-demand availability

UnlimitedPractice attempts

InstantStructured feedback

“ZWIP gave me a way to practise real consultations out loud, on my own schedule, and actually understand where I was losing marks. It changed how I prepared for PLAB 2.”