Experience with the simulated patient-physician encounter.

The development of computer-based simulations of the patient-physician encounter has made it possible to give students the opportunity to manage a case without jeopardizing a real patient's life. At the University of Wisconsin Medical School simulated patients have been an integral part of the third-year teaching program for the past five years. They have been used to permit the students to gain clinical experience, as part of a series of structured teaching conferences, and in a medical testing program. Student and faculty response to the program generally has been favorable.