At the UCR Center for Simulated Patient Care (CSPC) at the School of Medicine, Standardized Patients (SP's) portray the roles of patients, family members or others to allow students to practice physical exam skills, history taking skills, communication skills and other exercises. SP's learn the symptoms, personality traits, and other characteristics of a patient and perform them in a standardized way. For a patient role, SP's receive case materials in advance of training that must be memorized to accurately portray the patient with a learner (medical student, resident or doctor). This generally includes information related to the current medical complaint (when it started, previous episodes, severity, etc.), along with other background information (marital status, past medical history, allergies, tobacco use, alcohol use, etc.). SP's use the information to portray the patient in either a one-on-one setting with a single student/learner, or in a group setting with instructors and/or ...