Experience with an automated cancer protocol surveillance system.

At an active cancer center, patients may be on a large number of different treatment protocols. Each of these protocols has its own examination, test, and treatment modification requirements. It is often difficult for the clinician to keep track of the protocol requirements on all of his patients, so elements of the protocol may be inadvertently omitted.

Experience with the simulated patient-physician encounter.

The development of computer-based simulations of the patient-physician encounter has made it possible to give students the opportunity to manage a case without jeopardizing a real patient's life. At the University of Wisconsin Medical School simulated patients have been an integral part of the third-year teaching program for the past five years. They have been used to permit the students to gain clinical experience, as part of a series of structured teaching conferences, and in a medical testing program.