University of Rochester Center for Medical Simulation - Overview Print E-mail

History | Applications | Resources

Simulation, which has become an integral component of training in the aviation industry, is now recognized as a valuable tool for training medical professionals and improving patient safety. Full-scale patient simulators help a wide variety of practitioners and students learn the diagnosis and management of clinical problems without risk to real patients. The Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Rochester Medical Center was one of the pioneers in the field of medical simulation, starting a medical simulation program in 1994. We hosted the first International Conference on Simulators in Medical Education in 1995.
 
The Center for Medical Simulation is located near the Surgical Suite at the University Medical Center, and officially opened in 1998. The core of this specially constructed facility is a computer-controlled full-body patient simulator that incorporates mathematical models of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems as well as models of human responses to drugs. The patient presents realistic vital signs and responds appropriately to clinical management. Physiological parameters and disease processes can be pre-programmed, or changed at any moment during the simulation by the operator.


The simulation room is flexible and can be configured as a functional and realistic operating room, intensive-care unit, emergency department, or patient room. Faculty members can control the simulator from the bedside for one-on-one teaching.

During full-scale team-based simulations, instructors can also operate the simulator and video equipment from the control room, which is adjacent to the simulator room and includes a one-way observation window.



 

There is also an adjacent debriefing room with an observation window and video monitors.



 

The simulator facility is used in undergraduate, graduate, and continuing medical education. Medical students encounter the simulator early in their curriculum and throughout their four-year course of study; the simulator program has been further expanded to meet the needs of the Medical School's double-helix curriculum. Residents from different departments participate in one-on-one training sessions as well as realistic crisis management exercises. Medical Center staff use the simulator to improve their skills in ventilator management, ACLS, and conscious sedation. Multidisciplinary sessions allow participants to improve their leadership, communication, and team resource management skills, which are key components needed in managing medical crises.

Currently, the simulation center is owned and operated by the Department of Anesthesiology, but its use has expanded far beyond one department. Dr. David Stern, an attending anesthesiologist, is the Director of the Center and is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the facility. Instructors who utilize the simulator in their teaching include faculty from the departments of Anesthesiology, Emergency Medicine, Surgery, Medicine, Pharmacology and Physiology, and the School of Nursing as well as staff from a number of hospital services such as Respiratory Therapy.
During 2004, a multi-disciplinary Executive Advisory Board was formed to assist the Simulation Center in developing enhanced internal and external use of the Simulator Center and use financial profits from external use to subsidize internal URMC academic and safety related programs. The Department of Anesthesiology provides substantial financial support for programming, teaching, continued access to, and upgraded systems for, the Simulation Center for URMC and the community. 
 
Last Updated ( Friday, 21 August 2009 09:05 )