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Limits on Duty Hours Main Topic at GRA Meeting Post 9/11 Fallout: International Students, Patients Still Facing Scrutiny Organ Transplantation: Modern Triumphs and Tribulations Innovations in Medical Education: Spinning a Web in Simulation Current & Choice: Filling the Pipeline A Word From the President: Bridging the Quality Chasm Viewpoint: What We Are Learning From SARS
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Innovations in Medical Education:
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Projecting Medical Education: Jeff Taekman, M.D. (left), director of Duke University's Human Simulation Center and founder of the SimDot network, shows "Stan the Mannequin" to North Carolina state officials at a Project Medical Education event last year. |
A group of medical educators have created a new Web site to share and peer-review learning materials to facilitate communication in the field of human simulation. Simulators are the sophisticated, computerized mannequins that are used to train medical students, residents, and physicians.
The SimDot network (www.simdot.org) is the brainchild of Jeffrey M. Taekman, MD, who directs the Human Simulation and Patient Safety Center at Duke University School of Medicine. Dr. Taekman, assistant dean for educational technology and an assistant professor of anesthesiology at Duke, set up the site with programmer Bryan Andregg. It went live last November.
"SimDot is modeled after a traditional academic journal," Dr. Taekman says. People submit simulation cases to the site, where they undergo a formal peer-review process by an editorial board made up of academic specialists in human simulation. Approved cases will contain all the materials needed to run a high-fidelity simulation, says Dr. Taekman - including scripts, expected learner behaviors, assessment methods, and simulator programming. One goal is to reduce the time needed to produce quality didactic material, Dr. Taekman says. "As anyone who works with human simulators knows, it takes a significant amount of time to prepare an educational module. Many centers now produce similar or identical cases used only by their own learners. By sharing cases over the Internet , we can cut down on redundancy."
Another goal of the network - which won an award at the International Meeting on Medical Simulation - is to help those who work on human simulation cases obtain quantifiable academic credit for their educational activities, Dr. Taekman says. "The peer-review process allows us to place citations in our curriculum vitaes for promotion and tenure."
Dr. Taekman notes that currently each individual simulation center develops its own cases and has its own internal review process, which results in variable quality of the learning resources. "By using an external peer- review process, we hope to improve the quality of cases and make them more widely accessible," he says, adding that he is seeking additional funding for SimDot, which is funded primarily by Duke's Department of Anesthesia.
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Simulation Orientation: Kathleen Rosen, MD (right, in dark outfit), director of West Virginia University School of Medicine's Patient Simulation Program, watches over medical students during anesthesia orientation in the school's simulation lab in May. |
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SimDot's discussion area is free to its users, who can access links to multi-disciplinary news and case synopses. In order to download case material, users must upload their own cases; "intellectual credits" Dr. Taekman calls them. "You can't make withdrawals without making deposits," he says, adding that in the future, users may be allotted "starter credits."
The peer-review process is the network's key component, and SimDot's editorial board is made up of medical faculty in the four main specialties that commonly use human simulators: anesthesia, nurse anesthesia, emergency medicine, and surgery. Most reviewers are from the United States - including faculty from Harvard, Stanford, and Penn State - but the international board includes one German and one Australian member. Plans are to eventually encompass all specialties that use human simulation.
The board members currently are reviewing their first few cases: a tension pneumothorax case and a medication error case. Dr. Taekman says the results could be posted as early as this month. The pneumothorax case is a good example of a potential time-saver, he says. "We've spent 20 hours on that case - if you multiply that by the 150 simulation facilities worldwide, that's a lot of time."
Kathleen Rosen, MD, a member of the SimDot editorial board, echoes the potential for time savings. Typically, she says, it can take up to 10 hours to prepare for a one-hour lecture, adding that it would be "inefficient for everyone around the country to do the same work." By pooling their resources, educators can draw from each other's experiences, says Dr. Rosen, director of West Virginia University School of Medicine's Patient Simulation Program and an associate professor of anesthesiology and pediatrics.
"The simulation community is looking to share information and to share resources, and [SimDot] is a nice way to share information," she says.
By Michael G. Malloy
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