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From a difficult labor and delivery where there is little time to save mother and child to laproscopic surgery, Mayor Michael Bloomberg along with health officials say the Institute for Medical Simulation and Advanced Learning provides just the setting health professionals need to bolster critical care training.

Located inside Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx, the 10,000 square foot facility that cost the city $10 million replicates everything from the emergency room to unpredictable patients with computer-operated mannequins in their place.

Taking a page from science fiction, the mannequins mimic human biology and emotions. They have heartbeats, breathe, sweat, and can practically curse at their husbands with labor pains, along with playing the role of patient in a wide range of other scenarios.

"It helps each of us to know what our roles are and what we are supposed to do, what maneuvers come," said Lincoln Medical & Mental Health Center Third Year Resident Dr. Reena Shah.

Doctors say what a lot of people might not realize is that the world of simulation training is still relatively new and that they consider what they are doing inside these doors to be a wave of the future.

"We believe there is a very big future for simulation, both in terms of technical skills and communication and team skills. We see the use of technology, but also we see the use of professional patients or actors. We see it as the main way we will, a decade from now, be training our clinical staff to reduce harm to our patients," said NYC Health & Hospitals Corporation Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ross Wilson.

The public hospital system has already trained more than 2,500 doctors and nurses within the first year of being fully operational. They expect those numbers to grow by at least 12,000 more trained professionals within the next two years.