Virtual Internet Patient Simulation: paving the way from sound pedagogical design to popularity

“Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.” (Pablo Picasso) Virtual Internet Patient Simulation (VIPS) is a computer-based training system that allows medical educators (self-proclaimed or otherwise) to build virtual patients capable to take part in Web-based simulated consultations that challenge the learner’s clinical reasoning and decision-making skills. Recognising the primary importance of managing the context of uncertainty inherent to ambulatory medicine, VIPS focuses on the questions one may ask and the decisions one has to make during a consultation, rather than on the answers that describe symptoms, conditions and treatments [1].