Innovative Simulation Technology Arrives at CDU
The deployment of simulation technology to provide a broader range of patient contact can very well be a game changer in the way that health professionals of all types are trained, according to Dr. Andrew Lam, Director of CDU’ s Simulation Center.“ The short-term goal is several things. One is to get our simulation center accreditation by SSH, the Society of Simulation in Healthcare. This goal is dependent on our one university strategic plan that was laid out a few years ago. The first thing I did was to adopt the name CDU Simulation Center, encompassing three locations in one. We’ re operating under one operational organizational chart.”
Dr. Lam anticipates securing preliminary accreditation by May of this year.“ We have developed a full-scale formal CDU simulation center policy and procedural manual. We’ ve been working with Dr. Bill Shay on that. We have about 200 pages of bylaws, policies and procedures that will need to be adopted in light of regulatory compliance. One of the compliance issues is that we have to be up to date with our technology. We have new simulation mannequins. We have Sim Man 3g, and we are currently adopting a lot of other new technology,” he noted.
One technology that Dr. Lam’ s team is in process of developing is the virtual reality and augmented reality simulation platform. This innovation exceeds the
regulatory requirement for SSH accreditation.“ We want to do this because we want to set the bar for simulation centers, not only in South Los Angeles, but also in California, as well as on a national level. There aren’ t too many simulation programs that have VR and AR simulation yet. A lot of programs will have high fidelity, mannequins, and task trainers, but not the virtual reality platform,” he added.
Dr. Lam works for Dr. Delia Santana in her capacity as Assistant Provost of Clinical Affairs.“ She’ s my boss. She was the one that found me,” he said. When he first applied for a position at CDU, she was part of the team that supported the simulation program and they started with the idea of modernization.
Now, local universities including USC, UCLA and to a lesser extent Loma Linda University, are transitioning to the new technology. Dr. Lam was an early adopter, having attended simulation conferences since 2015. He has been working with a lot of other program directors and networked with them all these years. This technology is new and expensive and it’ s difficult to adopt. Also, you need the human resources as well.
Dr. Lam attended Windsor University School of Medicine and later USC Price School for his Master in Healthcare Administration.“ During medical school, we do a lot of
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 9