Physicians Outline Challenges, Advantages of Using Virtual Patients as Teaching Tool

Virtual patients are becoming a useful tool for medical students and a resource for medical schools. The obvious reality that students can make mistakes with no risk to the "patient" is part of the attraction to this technology. "Virtual patients allow students to learn without putting real patients at risk," said Norm Berman, MD, professor of pediatrics at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and the lead author of a perspective piece recently published by the journal Academic Medicine. "No actual patients are harmed in the process of learning from virtual patients." The authors outlined the role of virtual patients in relation to the challenges and opportunities within medical education.