Virtual Patients for future medical students

There will be no blood, no need for a scalpel or other medical instruments, in operating on a virtual patient. 

At St Mary's Hospital in London, surgeon Aimee Di Marco is about to cut up a body and afterwards she will be able to place the organs back in the body, reattach the bones and blood vessels, and put the skin back on.

The body in question is a virtual one, appearing on a touchscreen "operating table". It could represent the future for both teaching would-be doctors about anatomy and preparing for real-life operations.

Imperial College, the partner to St Mary's Hospital, purchased the table at a cost of £60,000 nine months ago. It is the first of its kind in Europe.

Students and surgeons can interact with it either via touch or with a traditional mouse. The body can be stripped back to expose internal organs, areas can be enlarged for more detailed study and the software can work with real patient data.