It Breathes, It Bleeds -- but It Doesn't Sue; Computerized Mannequin Simulates Dozens of Problems for Students to Practice On

Mattson, Marcia, The Florida Times Union

Byline: Marcia Mattson, The Times-Union

SARASOTA -- It breathes, bleeds and has a pulse.

Its tongue swells during allergic reactions.

One of its pupils dilates when it suffers a head injury.

And if you place a hand over its nose and mouth, or choose the wrong course of treatment for one of its many ills, it dies.

But better to kill METI Man than an actual patient, which is why medical and nursing schools are spending tens of thousands of dollars for the high-tech patient simulator.

METI Man is a plastic shell within which a tangle of tubes, computer chips and plastic bags stand in for organs, bloodstream and airways.

Its shell can be altered to look like a male or a female, but more important, the device can be programmed to simulate the physiology of 50 patients, ranging from a healthy young man to a granny to "truck driver" -- a patient who drinks, is obese and has high blood pressure and a host of other problems.

Then it can be programmed to simulate dozens of medical scenarios, from an …

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Publication information: Article title: It Breathes, It Bleeds -- but It Doesn't Sue; Computerized Mannequin Simulates Dozens of Problems for Students to Practice On. Contributors: Mattson, Marcia - Author. Newspaper title: The Florida Times Union. Publication date: November 20, 2003. Page number: Not available. © 2007 The Florida Times-Union. COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group.

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