In 2015, I began a new gig as a Standardized Patient, and I’ve been regularly poked and prodded ever since. An SP is a person carefully recruited and trained to take on the characteristics of a real patient, thereby affording med students an opportunity to learn and to be evaluated on learned skills in a simulated clinical environment. Basically I’m helping future doctors be better at their jobs, so you’re welcome! Currently, I’m changing lives at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and Rush University.