Medical Modeling and Simulation Database

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White Paper on Surgical Simulation

Excerpts from the Literature

Medical Modeling and Simulation: The Reality

The paradigm has shifted. The robots are coming and simulation and objective assessment are here to stay. Information systems, robots, and simulators are being incorporated into the daily practice of surgery and perhaps the inevitable direction will be that every surgical procedure will automatically and continuously include rehearsal, training, recording, and assessment.

--Richard M. Satava, The Future of Surgical Simulation and Surgical Robots, Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons, March 2007:92(3)13-19.

At a public meeting in April 2004, an FDA panel voted to accept a proposal that virtual reality simulation would be an important component of a training package for carotid stenting...Trainees would learn catheter and wire handling skills on a high-fidelity virtual reality simulator until the trainees achieved a level of proficiency in didactic and technical skills.

--Anthony G. Gallagher and Christopher U. Cates, Approval of Virtual Reality Training for Carotid Stenting, JAMA. 2004; 292:3024-3026.

Dr. David Gaba recently persuaded Stanford to make simulation training - both scripted scenarios and mannequin practice - a requirement for medical students...

--Jerome Groopman, A Model Patient, The New Yorker, May 2, 2005

According to Dr. Daniel Jones, the chief of minimally invasive surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess, his hospital is the only one in the country to require surgical residents to demonstrate proficiency in simulated procedures in order to advance to the next year. The policy was instituted last year, after a campaign by Jones, who recently established a skills lab at the hospital which includes ten laparoscopic video trainers, a urological simulator, a gastrointestinal simulator, and two mannequins...one for use in anesthesia procedures, the other for trauma cases.

--Jerome Groopman, A Model Patient, The New Yorker, May 2, 2005

Anesthesiologists pay less for malpractice insurance today, in constant dollars, than they did 20 years ago...over the past two decades, patient deaths due to anesthesia have declined...one advance was the development of high-tech mannequins that allow anesthesiologists to practice responses to allergic reactions and other life-threatening situations. Anesthesiologists say the mannequins have also allowed them to become more proficient at performing an emergency procedure akin to a tracheotomy that involves slitting open a clogged airway - something a doctor can't practice on live patients.

--Joseph T. Hallinan, The Wall Street Journal, June 21, 2005.

The Center for Medical Education and Innovation ^TM is a 20,000 square foot state-of-the-art medical education and training facility located on the fourth floor of the McConnell Heart Hospital at Riverside [Methodist Hospital, Columbus, Ohio]. It replicates a hospital environment, from the scrub sinks to the equipment to the collaboration among healthcare professionals. The Center incorporates the most advanced, innovative medical simulation and education technologies available today and allows multidisciplinary training of medical professionals along the full continuum of care, from paramedics and emergency technicians to residents, nurses and attending physicians.

--HealthNet Newsletter, FITNE, Inc., Fall 2005.