July 10, 2009 Robotic patients attract new generation of students at Harvard Play video

(NECN: Latoyia Edwards, Boston, Mass.) - A pair of Harvard researchers found doctors are better equipped to deal with a variety of patients when they train with a diverse group of physicians.

Harvard Medical School is using robotic patients to attract a new generation of students from underrepresented areas of Massachusetts.

The school has found a way to entice the video game generation, and excite them about a never-imagined career in medicine -- the attraction is a robotic mannequin named Stan.

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A professor uses a speaker system to voice Stan's symptoms. Stan's body is rigged to simulate anything from an allergic reaction to a heart attack.

The school recruited some outstanding 12th-graders from different areas of Greater Boston to show them they can be doctors and scientists, too.

A 2005 Association of American Medical Colleges study found that racial and ethnic minorities constitute less than 10% of U.S. physicians and surgeons.