Zoe Saldana – Look of the Day

State will build several simulation sites for training medical personnel.

The Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) December 15, 2005 Byline: Jonathan Maze Dec. 15–Dr. John Schaefer isn’t a pilot, but he flew airplaines in college. Since then, the former engineering major has been trying to train doctors as he would airline pilots.

Specifically, he wants new doctors to practice on fake patients before working on real ones, much as pilots began to do 40 years ago by using flight simulators. this web site greenville memorial hospital

“I’m a father, and I don’t want anyone practicing on my kid when they’re first learning,” Schaefer said.

Beginning in February, Schaefer will be performing that training across South Carolina.

Today, a coalition of hospitals will name the 46-year-old as simulation chairman for the Center for Clinical Effectiveness and Patient Safety.

The center, which began at the Medical University of South Carolina, is funded through state lottery dollars and Health Sciences South Carolina, a collaborative of the state’s biggest hospitals.

Schaefer will coordinate the facilities’ burgeoning efforts to integrate simulation into the training of doctors, nurses and other health professionals. He also will do research to show decision-makers whether simulation works to improve patient safety.

Though he will be based out of MUSC, Schaefer will first help coordinate the design of a 15,000-square-foot simulation lab now under construction at Greenville Memorial Hospital. The lab will be one of the biggest of its kind in the country.

“There are a number of places with simulation centers, but nothing like that,” Schaefer said.

Similarly, MUSC is planning a 10,000-square-foot lab at its College of Nursing and hopes to include a larger one at a patient-oriented research tower officials hope to build downtown, said Dr. Jerry Reves, MUSC’s medical school dean.

Two additional labs, one 8,000 square feet, the other 3,000, will be built in Columbia to serve Palmetto Health Alliance and the University of South Carolina.

Schaefer comes to the job with an extensive background in simulation training. The anesthesiologist runs the Peter M. Winter Institute for Simulation Education and Research, also known as the WISER Institute, at the University of Pittsburgh. The lab has performed 10,000 simulation exercises over 11 years and now has 16 full-size simulators.

Schaefer said he was lured to South Carolina because of the involvement of hospitals around the state, as well as the state support for the project through the Centers for Economic Excellence program, which uses lottery dollars to help lure top researchers to the Palmetto State.

Simulation training involves advanced mannequins, or patient simulators, most of them made by two companies, Florida-based Medical Education Technologies Inc., or METI, and Texas-based Laerdal. The simulators respond like real humans: They groan, breathe, blink and have a heartbeat and soft skin. website greenville memorial hospital

The mannequins are computer-driven and are based on sophisticated mathematical models of human physiology. If the patient isn’t breathing, the nurse must breathe for it or the mannequin will “die.” The benefit of using these simulators, of course, is that they don’t actually die, allowing trainees to make mistakes without causing real harm.

Schaefer believes this helps improve care. At Pittsburgh, for instance, all anesthesiologists on staff must use patient simulators to train on the proper guidelines for opening a patient’s airway, complications of which could cause a coma or death.

Without the simulator, “you can’t practice the techniques, they’re all risky,” Schaefer said. This way, doctors must follow those guidelines on the patient simulators before they complete the training.

MUSC officials believe this kind of training is about to become much more common, and doctors may even be required to practice on simulators before receiving or renewing their licenses, Reves said.

“We’re going to be way ahead of the curve, so to speak,” he said. “We’ll have people perfecting their skills, refreshing them just like airline pilots do. It really should make for a safer and more effective clinical environment in these major facilities all around the state.” Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.