… interns meet a fully formed iPatient long before seeing the real patient. The iPatient’s blood counts and emanations are tracked and trended like a Dow Jones Index, and pop-up flags remind caregivers to feed or bleed. iPatients are handily discussed (or “card-flipped”) in the bunker, while the real patients keep the beds warm and ensure that the folders bearing their names stay alive on the computer.

— From “Culture Shock — Patient as Icon, Icon as Patient”