Valentina Busik: Doctor, Miss Germany, AI Entrepreneur

They were probably the best-invested 99 euros of her life. And yet Valentina Busik had a moment of doubt when the call to participate in the Miss Germany 2025 election appeared on LinkedIn. Out of sheer curiosity, the doctor clicked the button and was surprised to find that it hadn't been a beauty contest for five years, but rather a female empowerment network that honors women who take responsibility.

"But the registration deadline was in two days, I was sitting in the ICE with a freshly broken shoulder, and then you also had to upload a video explaining your mission," the dermatologist recounts. "I wasn't in good shape at all."

But as the saying goes: Necessity is the mother of invention. Valentina Busik simply let her AI avatar speak for her. "It introduced me, explained what I was working on, and how I envision my future. I ended my video with the sentence: And if I was able to convince you, feel free to invite the real Valentina now."

No sooner said than done. That was a year ago, and since then, the 28-year-old not only won the title of Miss Germany in February 2025 but also received her doctorate in medicine in May.

Which title is more important?

In their respective fields, both titles are very important. In medicine, the doctorate plays a much larger role, but when it comes to my mission, the fame and network that the Miss Germany election has brought me are priceless.

What exactly is your mission?

I fight for understandable medicine – so that no patient leaves the doctor's office with more questions than before. Regardless of the level of education, emotional capacity, diagnosis, or origin with which people enter a practice, everyone should be equally well-informed in the end.

And how do you intend to achieve this noble goal?

With the help of a doctor avatar, a digital figure based on artificial intelligence that any doctor can have created of themselves. This avatar explains basic knowledge in educational videos about operations or treatments, which are made available to patients via tablet in the waiting room even before the actual doctor’s consultation. And in all languages and easily understandable, without foreign words.

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Are avatars supposed to replace doctors?

No, quite the opposite. It's about informing patients comprehensively in advance. Let's be honest, when you come to a clinic, you usually already have your diagnosis, but a thousand open questions. And at a university hospital like in Giessen, where I worked, as a doctor you have an average of 15 minutes per patient consultation – whether it’s about cancer or neurodermatitis.

That's naturally far too short to answer all the questions. Especially in an often emotionally charged atmosphere. The AI videos can be watched at home via app and important points can be discussed with the family. If something remains unclear, you can watch them ten times in a row. This ultimately gives the doctor time to have a much more relaxed conversation and address the really important, profound questions. This makes the patient feel on equal footing.

Many people still have reservations about artificial intelligence.

That's rapidly decreasing due to ChatGPT and AI on Google or WhatsApp, which almost all of us use intuitively. In the end, AI should take tasks off our hands and make life easier. In the case of the doctor avatar, they are supposed to imitate the appearance of doctors, mimic their voice and expressions. The content itself still comes from practices or clinics and is created and reviewed by real people. This is definitely safer than going through Dr. Google.

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How realistic should such an avatar look?

Ideally, Dr. Müller's avatar should look exactly like the real Dr. Müller. This not only creates trust but also shows that the doctor takes responsibility. Technically, this is possible. And the best part: the Dr. Müller AI is never in a bad mood, is always at its best, always sounds equally empathetic, and there are no so-called stupid questions here.

But at the same time, it must always be clear that Dr. Müller is an AI avatar – that is the prerequisite for use.

Valentina Busik: How AI can be usefully employed in medicine

There are studies in which people feel better understood by a psychotherapeutic chatbot than by their psychologist.

The classical medical studies are very theoretical and not designed to teach how to deliver, for example, a severe diagnosis to people. The interpersonal aspect unfortunately often falls short. Meanwhile, there are also AI systems that listen in on patient conversations. Of course, only with their consent. Afterwards, they give feedback to the doctors on where and how they can react more empathetically. A great training tool.

Did you yourself have early experiences with doctors who were more than ignorant?

As a small child, I had a severe kidney disease and was often in the hospital. Due to a congenital narrowing of the ureters at the junction to the bladder, I repeatedly had urinary tract infections, which were only recognized when I already had a kidney backlog. This is very painful and dangerous and urgently needed surgery.

The doctors in Kazakhstan explained at the time that such interventions were not carried out there – one would have to go abroad for this, preferably back to Germany, since we were from there and it would be the easiest. But in Germany, there was initially no need for an operation.

Only through the personal commitment of a doctor friend of my parents did we finally get a surgery appointment. After that, I felt much better, but I was always the unathletic child in the family. While my brothers played soccer with my father, I had my nose in books.

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Did you stay in Germany?

Yes, we were late repatriates. I was a very shy girl, and I was also terribly embarrassed to speak Russian. Today I know that it is a huge blessing to grow up bilingual. In the end, this spurred my ambition, and I got a scholarship for students with a migration background from the START Foundation and later the scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation. This support and the cohesion in the group changed everything.

Did you always want to study medicine?

My dream was always to become a pediatrician, partly because of my own story. That's why I studied medicine, completed all clinical internships, and eventually already had a position as a specialist in my hometown of Eisenach near Erfurt.

But the work in the pediatric practice disappointed me: It mostly consisted of paperwork—certificates, discussions about vaccinations or unnecessary exemptions from physical education and little insight among many parents. That's why I chose dermatology. There I find higher compliance among patients.

Dermatology today also has a lot to do with aesthetic medicine, including some questionable beauty ideals. As Miss Germany, are you almost predestined for that?

Not at all! For me personally, the focus should anyway shift from the external to the internal values. I have worked at the university for the past two and a half years and have not done any cosmetic medicine so far. In the meantime, I am also working in a practice and continue to work purely medically. But I am not against aesthetic procedures. Everyone should do whatever makes them feel comfortable. At the moment, however, classical medicine clearly takes precedence for me.

Medicine: new developments with AI

Medicine, entrepreneur, or beauty pageants – which direction should your career take now?

At the next Miss Germany pageant, I will definitely be there as a judge, and when it comes to the avatar, it's now entering the crucial phase. I have my own website, and together with other colleagues, I am currently founding a clinic system that sets up booths in hospital emergency rooms. In the booths, an avatar takes the medical history and works through a standardized questionnaire.

Fractures, heart attacks, and thromboses naturally still go straight to the emergency doctor. But if someone comes in with a stomachache, the booth will ask questions and analyze. Depending on the course of the conversation, the AI decides whether a medical assistant needs to be involved again or if a diagnosis can already be made. After that, one is then directed to the right place. A prototype is already in place at the University Hospital Marburg and is well frequented. Many patients thus avoid long waiting times.