Simulators can teach old docs new tricks

An $8 million center in California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco is using lifelike robots and other cutting-edge technology to help doctors learn and perfect surgical procedures. Medical schools and their affiliated teaching hospitals have been using simulators for two decades, but the center in San Francisco offers a new focus: California Pacific Medical Center is targeting veteran doctors who want to learn a new technique or refine an old one. The Medical Center opened the surgical simulation center in October and has since done skills training courses for more than 150 doctors.