"Good Morning, my name is Elizabeth, and how are we feeling today?"

Technology Review published by MIT brings us research news by Emily Singer [1/11/2011].

Take a look at what MIT and Northeastern University have been up to. They have created Elizabeth ~ a personable, caring and sympathetic virtual nurse! Click on the post title to read, listen or watch the full story.

But what can real nurses learn from this experiment you may ask? That their jobs are in jeopardy? No ~ but take note of these observations...

"patients who interacted with a virtual nurse named Elizabeth said they preferred the computer simulation to an actual doctor or nurse because they didn't feel rushed or talked down to."

"Patients more accurately reported their health information when interacting with the virtual character than they were when filling out a standard electronic questionnaire."

Researchers explain ~ Such technologies will become increasingly important with rising health-care costs and an aging population.

"We already know we don't have enough health-care providers to go around, and it's only getting worse,"..."About 60 percent of the cost of delivering health care comes from human resources, so even if you can train more people, it's not an ideal way to improve costs."