Health care professionals practice catheterization and other medical procedures on “Stan,” a patient simulator in the UC Davis Medical Center’s new SimSuite, during an open house held last week to officially welcome the state-of-the-art facility. Only four hospitals in the world are equipped with SimSuites. Patient simulators can be programmed to act like nearly any adult or pediatric patient a doctor might encounter, says Jennifer Meyer, SimSuite coordinator. Health professionals can practice common medical procedures and respond to rare and complex medical conditions and life-threatening emergencies without the fear of hurting a live patient. Here, Mojca Remskar Konia, Sundeep Tumber and Judith Hwang practice anesthetizing “Stan.” “It’s reality without risk,” Meyer says. The simulators blink, speak, breathe and have a heartbeat, eight pulse points and a variety of other anatomical features that allow students to practice intravenous drug delivery, CPR, catheterizations, basic obstetrics skills and respiratory therapy. Before or during procedures, the patient simulator might comment: “My chest really hurts” or “I think my blood sugar might be low,” giving attendants a chance to respond to developing issues during the course of treatment. The computer simulations have been developed based on real cases, Meyer says.