Shirley S. Wang - Shirley.Wang@wsj.com - at The Wall Street Journal, covers the changes coming with virtual patients.
Scientists are developing ever more sophisticated versions of "virtual patients" with the aim of testing medical devices and procedures that can't readily be assessed in real people.
Medical innovations typically undergo extensive trials before they are approved for use in people. But sometimes such analysis isn't practical because of the risks to patients. Medical testing, for example, is rarely done in children and pregnant women due to worries about what a procedure could do to a growing body.