Innovative Simulation Technology Arrives at CDU( continued)
affective learning domain and improves decision making. And you get to design these machines that replicate what we have in house. By the time they do a simulation, and they go on the hospital floor, everything will be the similar, he added.”
The emotional components come into play in these scenarios during the performance part: the visualization, and the interaction.“ This is something that you have tools for. You can you talk to the simulated patient as if it’ s a real patient. It has microphone feedback. When you say something the computer will generate a response so that you can go in there and ask for example,‘ where are you hurt?’ and the computer simulation will say,‘ I’ m hurting at my forehead or‘ my arm is hurt,’ and you can program it to be a different ethnicity, a different age, as well as accentuating the ferocity, intensity of the pain, however you want it,” he said. It’ s basically emotional awareness and situational awareness that we’ re trying to create here. That’ s something that you can’ t really get in the classroom.
Why will this technology benefit our particular population? How can this be a tool? And the issue of bringing additional technology in a technology desert, but at the same time, with the goal of eradicating health disparities?
“ When we have simulation mannequins, they mostly all come from Norway, and also from Texas. All these mannequins that we’ ve been using are physical mannequins. An example is six-foot Tom, white male with a six pack,” noted Dr. Lam.
“ In this virtual reality, we can program it to different ethnicities, different color skin tones, different age setting, and the environment we can program it to. We can bring it to a tropical island of Jamaica, or South LA. It has a certain feel to it. We can add certain scenarios with a maker that there’ s certain needs in the community that we serve. We can add a Hispanic accent to it, right? We can create cultural needs. If diabetes and overweight is one of the major issues in South LA, then we can program basically for everyone as is needed,” he noted.
And how is a virtual / actual reality tool programmed for diabetes and other disparities?“ We put it in the patient chart,” he said.“ We’ ll be able to describe a patient as African American overweight diabetic, eats fried food, you know, low exercise, drinks beer. When that information is programmed into the computer it will take that information and print out biometrics. Basically, the vital signs will reflect that type of lifestyle, all during the simulation process. All of these things are done presimulation. So that’ s where the technician comes in,” Dr.
Lam added.
Is this truly a real breakthrough?“ Harvard has adopted this, as well as USC and UCLA. Most medical schools are leaving the wet lab, kind of like what we’ re doing. USC still has cadaver labs and formaldehyde and that’ s what I did when I was in training. You had the smells. You didn’ t deal with the fact that cadavers are toxic to your lungs. That’ s not a very innovative environment to work with and you can’ t really see much because after a while the cadaver becomes rotten, which makes it difficult to identify structures.”
Dr. Lam continued.“ We can also learn anatomy as well. You can put on a visor and look at a mannequin and see layers of anatomy, it’ s almost like the anatomy launch table that we have, but in 3-D. You can choose the vascular layer, you can choose the muscular skeletal layer, if you want, and you can identify this layer with more clarity, and you can not only see it when it’ s dissected, but you can see it live, as you can see the physiological state of it that you can’ t do. When you look at a heart, you can see the heart and you can ask it to beat or you can look at the inside of it, to see how it’ s beating. You can look at it in any way you want.
“ And you see the dynamic function of the anatomy. The whole anatomy provides what you can do on a cadaver or a model, if you will. So that’ s a that’ s a major advantage to medical students. To understand it holistically, and not just seeing it on a static level. Because before medical school, you study physiology. You study the textbook, you read about physiology, but you don’ t really see it, right? You study about the moving heart.
“ You know, the atrium pumps, and the ventricle pumps. First, you visualize in your head, but now you don’ t have to, you can visualize it by putting on the visor, and so that complements your didactic textbook, and you see it in real life terms. By the time you go to your patient you kind of understand this as a 360-degree point of view. It’ s not just isolated textbook verbiage.
“ On top of that, you can see patients wherever you want, you can see patients at home, students can go to a library and put on a visor anytime. And you can go through case scenarios before you will actually go to the clinic and see patients, to see what to do during the patient-doctor interaction. But now you can do it virtually whenever you want in the privacy on your own computer,” observed Dr. Lam.
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 11