Medical Students Practice Procedures on Robots

The robot is breathing and reacts when you perform procedures. There is a blood-like liquid when you attempt a venipuncture. You can see the results of your heroic CPR actions in real time. No, this is not science fiction but a regular practice session at the Autonomus University's school of medicine in Mexico City, which is the largest in Latin America.

There are 24 robotic patients and a computer program that simulates illnesses ranging from diabetes to a heart attack.

One of the medical students admits every new student's fear: "I would feel nervous if this was a real patient. With this I can practice many times."

The story was reported by AP, Reuters and ABC but I like the Medgadget coverage the best. The guys who keep that blog running are doing a good job - today I was searching for a new type of wound treatment, called EpiFLO, and Medgadget was the number two hit on Google.

Medgadget links to the Mexico City's UNAM University web page (translated to English with Google). We use the same translation tool on this blog.

The Case School of Medicine is working on a Medical Simulation Lab (pdf). The team has a blog on blog.case.edu.

References:
Northeast Ohio medical students get to practice on lifelike simulators. The PlainDealer, 04/2007.