Nearly 95 percent of entering Duke freshmen have computers and, of that figure, about one-third have laptops, according to Mike Pickett, special assistant to the provost for academic technology and Duke's associate chief information officer.

Stan, a virtual patient currently programmed to replicate a truck driver, is in poor health. He's sixty-one years old, overweight, drinks too much, and exercises too little. And on this particular morning in a treatment area at Duke Medical Center, he's about to suffer a far more serious problem. With the click of a mouse, he's given a tension pneumothorax—a punctured lung.

Technological enhancements don't stop with Duke's professional programs, although they are clearly leading innovations on campus. Elsewhere at Duke, technology is affecting undergraduates and helping extend the boundaries of the traditional classroom.