"An SP is a person trained to portray a patient scenario, or an actual patient using their own history and physical exam findings, for the instruction, assessment, or practice of communication and/or examining skills of a health care provider. In the health and medical sciences, SPs are used to provide a safe and supportive environment conducive for learning or for standardized assessment.

SPs can serve as practice models, or participate in sophisticated assessment and feedback of one's abilities or services. The use of simulated scenarios involving humans is rapidly expanding to meet the needs of many high-risk service fields outside of human health care."

From Gayle Gliva-McConvey, BA
Director, Theresa A. Thomas Professional Skills Center
Eastern Virginia Medical School
Chair, Standards of Practice Committee

"The Simulated/Standardized Patient (SP) is a person who has been carefully coached to simulate an actual patient so accurately that the simulation cannot be detected by a skilled clinician.  In performing the simulation, the SP presents the gestalt of the patient being simulated; not just the history, but the body language, the physical findings, and the emotional and personality characteristics as well."

From HS Barrows
Simulated (Standardized) Patients and Other Human Simulations, 1987

Following the Threads of an Innovation: The History of Standardized Patients in Medical Education

Links to SP Programs around the World