Medical staff in the US are to be offered simulator training in order to improve their performance in heart operations.

Simantha, a mannequin that serves as a patient with a variety of medical problems and histories, provides the technology for the dummy runs.

She is based in a virtual reality training centre, known as the SimSuite, set in the Geisinger Medical Centre in Pennsylvania.

Because Simantha uses the latest haptic technology in the form of a computer-generated sense of touch, medical staff 'feel' the procedures they are carrying out and can go through a 'reality without risk' experience.

Students can thus perform simulated cardiac procedures before working on live patients.

The SimSuite comprises a pre-operative lab where a virtual doctor informs the medical staff of Simantha's problem.

The mannequin has been programmed with a hundred real-time complaints, all varying in difficulty, to give medical staff practice in a wide range of common but complex cardiovascular procedures.

After being briefed, medical staff then go into the 'operating theatre' which is complete with medical instruments, videos of real hearts and beeping monitors.

But Simantha has one rather unnerving trait. Unlike real patients, if the medical team makes a mistake while operating on her, she will not hesitate to tell them.

After the training session, participants receive feedback based on medical society guidelines which compares their performance to a national average. The reports can measure technique, time taken and whether the team made the correct diagnosis.

Doctors using the centre are already impressed. Dr Kirk Gavlick, a third-year cardiology fellow at the Geisinger Medical Centre, told vnunet.com that it allows medical staff to practise at their own pace and without the stress of working on a real person.

"It is very realistic," he said. "The mannequin is set up as a real patient would be under sterile wraps and it is easy to forget that you are working with a simulation.

"For example when inserting the catheter you encounter the same resistance that you would feel with a real patient."

The SimSuite does not only serve as a training centre. Fully qualified surgeons can use it to hone their skills and practice new medical procedures.

"Centres like this are going to be the rule rather than the exception and I think they will become an industry standard," said Dr Gavlick.