Last week, our first group of eHealth Young Innovators embarked on an exciting visit to the Centre of Excellence for Simulation Education and Innovation at Vancouver General Hospital.
Guess where we are today?
The Innovators first arrived into a lecture hall where they learned all about CESEI and its activities. Sensing eagerness to move on to the hands-on part of the day, Dr. Aziz quickly assigns the students into three groups each with a student leader and explains that the groups will rotate through three different rooms. The rooms all house specific simulation technologies to help train medical students, physicians, and other medical professionals equipped with the latest cutting-edge technologies and innovative teaching methods. In their words, CESEI is a very high-tech classroom! Here are some highlights of the day:
A short overview about CESEI
The group I shadowed took off for their first station in the Skills Lab with Dr. Aziz to meet “Harvey”. Who is Harvey? Harvey is the cardiopulmonary Patient Simulator. This full-manikin realistically simulates nearly any cardiac disease at the touch of a button by varying blood pressure, pulses, heart sounds and murmurs. The students and I got to use wireless remote stethoscopes to listen the different sample types of heartbeats Harvey can simulate. The sensation seems surreal that something so artificial can sound so life-like.
Dr. Aziz explains the heart’s structure and function
Harvey is cutting-edge
Another activity station was conducted the Human Patient Simulator Room. I thought this was definitely by far the most fascinating activity we did! The Human Patient Simulator (HPS), also known as “Steve”, is a computer-model-driven, full-sized mannequin that delivers that true-to-life scenarios that swiftly change to meet instructors’ goals. This provides the necessary hands-on experience for physicians in-training before treating real patients.
You would be impressed to know that Steve blinks, speaks, breathes and even has a heartbeat and pulse that responds accurately to mimic human responses to such procedures like CPR, intravenous medication, intubation, ventilation, and catheterization. Our facilitator guides us through the steps of diagnosing Steve’s condition (he complained of chest pain) and following a dramatic rescue by the students when he goes into cardiac arrest!
Meeting Steve
Assessing Steve
Talking to Steve
Performing CPR
Our group was very, very proud they were part of an emergency response team to help treat the “patient”, Steve.
It was a real treat to visit such a state-of-the-art facility and learn more about how places like CESEI today’s latest technology is best applied to medical education. To find out more about the eHealth Young Innovators, check out http://www.ehealthinnovators.ca/.