High-tech patients help healthcare students learn

Advances in robotics are helping teach healthcare professionals

Medical students are often well-versed in a variety of maladies that they've seen in their textbooks, but without seeing them in actual situations, they can be difficult to diagnose. Some hospitals are remedying this with a little high-tech help.

VOA News reportsthat a glassy-eyed patient named Gus told medical students from Georgetown University that he couldn't catch his breath. The students were more concerned with diagnosing him than treating him. Gus is a robotic patient simulator, designed to describe his problem verbally so that students can diagnose him.

At the Torrance Medical Center in California, a new baby has recently been delivered. Unlike Gus, baby Simantha cannot speak, but she does cry and move around. Like Gus, she is a simulator robot designed to give students and doctors the opportunity to practice neonatal care without risking the wellbeing of a real infant, according to KTLA News.

"We get nervous because our instructors are watching us," said student nurse Alexis Walter, quoted by VOA News. "When you are in school you feel the need to not make mistakes, but it is honestly the best place to do it."

Advancements like these patient simulators may cost a lot - Simantha cost $35,000 - but their life-saving potential is incalculable, and they provide a valuable asset to students and teachers that a textbook could not.