Patricks Prostate Gets Poked!

<p>Panic not as ‘Patrick’ is actually a “simulated patient who is connected to a mock prostrate in a robotic ass that talks to medical students while offering real-time feedback about the virtual prostate exam he’s receiving.”</p> <p></p><p> </p><p><img src="http://www.thegayuk.com/communities/8/004/009/928/388/images/4621147976.jpg" width="380" height="283" alt="Twitter" title="Twitter"/></p> <p></p><p>According to an article in this week’s indispensible ‘<a href="http://www.medicaldaily.com/">The Medical Daily</a>’ , Patrick serves a dual purpose: personal and professional. </p><p></p><p>Personally, he comes equipped with software that enables him to interact emotionally with the student and voice any concerns he has about the procedure. Dr. Benjamin Lok, one of the program’s designers, says the interpersonal relationship Patrick helps foster is invaluable from a practicing perspective. “This virtual human patient can talk to the learner, expresses fears and concerns about the prostate exam, and presents a realistic patient encounter,” </p><p></p><p>The other purpose he serves is functional. Patrick is endowed with force sensors, which can alert the student when he or she is being too aggressive, and can report how thorough the student was in his or her examination.</p><p></p><p>This all sounds well and good BUT (or should that be BUTT?) the image of “Patrick” in action looks to us positively scary. However we guess Doctors have to practice somehow and we would love to know what Patrick says to the really cute hot medical students.</p><p></p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.twitter.com/RogerWalkerDack">@RogerWalkerDack</a></p>