Gregory Welch, Prof. & AdventHealth Endowed Chair in Simulation Prof. Laura Gonzalez, Prof. Juan Cendan, Prof. Mindi Anderson | all University of Central Florida Simulating Patients for Healthcare Training: Appearance, Shape, Influence, and Awareness This panel will provide an introduction and discussion about the medical needs and alternate approaches for simulating patients when engaging in the training of healthcare practitioners, e.g., nurses and physicians. Examples approaches will include using real humans (standardized patients), physical “mannequins” with varying degrees of robotic actuation and sensing, computer graphics-based virtual humans, and a novel approach to what we call physical-virtual humans. Among other things we will discuss the appearance, physical shape, environmental influence, and apparent awareness of each, along with the implications on healthcare training. Presented by the Serious Play Conference seriousplayconf.com at Orlando, University of Central Florida, UCF, July 24-26, 2019