Implementation of virtual online patient simulation.

The development and use of virtual patients has become more expansive. Previous strategies to aid their development have been described to aid their formation. This study describes the development of a series of virtual patients following a methodology proposed by Posel et al [1]. Ten virtual patients with surgical pathology were developed using a reproducible framework. This article serves to guide virtual patient authors as a working description of virtual patient design in order to assist them for future virtual patient development.