University of Bath - Silicon sick

A robot that can be programmed to exhibit the symptoms of a range of medical conditions is being used to help train pharmacists at the University of Bath. The SimMan 3G robot, named "Simon", is life-sized and is designed to talk, breathe and react to medicines in the same way as humans. Bath's pharmacy department is one of the first in the country to own such a machine, although the robots are widely used in medical schools. Denise Taylor, senior teaching fellow in clinical pharmacy, said: "He's amazingly lifelike. If he has a reaction to a medicine, he may have a seizure, sweat or vomit."