If you had told me before christmas about "actors" being used i`d have laughed at you,but then my nephew came home for christmas,he`s at medical school in Newcastle.Anyway,he just had 2 exams to pass and i was asking him what they involved and he said they have a seperate ward at the hospital and actors lay there with different symptoms and the trainee doctors have to diagnose them,i thought he was joking but he then told me the name of the company the NHS uses and how they use the actors to train doctors ,dentists and also use them in "terror attacks" to train paramedics.So its definitely feasible that the same thing is used in the US as well as the UK.