UT Center for Advanced Medical Simulation to Improve Medical Learning and Patient Care

Feb. 16, 2012 - PRLog -- The University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine Thursday opened a new medical simulation center that’s expected to enhance the quality of patient care and improve outcomes by advancing the medical skills of physicians and other healthcare professionals. Physicians and staff said the new facility stands alongside the nation’s best simulation centers for meeting the needs of practicing and aspiring medical professionals.

“Not only will the Center for Advanced Medical Simulation make a great contribution to our educational programs here, but it also will provide excellent opportunities for physicians and other healthcare professionals in the region to update their skills and meet newer requirements for certification,” said Dr. James J. Neutens, Dean of the UT Graduate School of Medicine. “Although the center revolves around providers of healthcare, the ultimate success story will be improved patient care and safety. We’re delighted to open the new simulation center.”

Neutens said that as the national model for physician and medical staff development evolves to include more of this type of training, the new center offers a setting for healthcare providers to improve individual skills and to practice team skills critical to patient safety. Complete with lifelike adult and newborn mannequins that mimic humans, simulated operating, intensive care and endovascular suites and a host of other advanced training devices for medical and dental procedures, the center is equipped to help clinicians improve their skills and decision-making capabilities.

“The new simulation center represents the changing paradigm in healthcare education and training,” said Dr. Leonard Hines, co-director of the UT Center for Advanced Medical Simulation and an assistant professor with the UT Graduate School of Medicine. “Similar to training in the aviation industry, medical simulation provides every member of the healthcare team the opportunity to learn and master skills and to become familiar with advancing technology in a safe, risk-free environment, before accepting the challenge of patient care. In promoting safer and higher quality healthcare, the center becomes a valuable asset to the region’s medical community and the patients served.”

The new center is 6,500 square feet, significantly larger than the 400-square-foot original simulation center that opened on the Knoxville campus of The University of Tennessee Medical Center in 2008. At $500-thousand, costs remained relatively low for the new facility as the medical center committed to using and renovating existing space for the simulation center. Already recognized as a regional asset for clinicians from a variety of hospitals and health systems in the Knoxville area, the newly renovated facility is expected to attract medical professionals from around the region and country for training.

“In addition to physicians, other healthcare providers such as nurses, therapists, physician assistants, EMTs and dentists learn techniques at the simulation center that can quickly be put into practice for their patients,” said Dr. Paul Huffstutter, co-director of the simulation center and an assistant professor with the UT Graduate School of Medicine. “Our physicians and staff provide significant hands-on training, but we also step back to observe and capture video recordings of procedures from a control room, with immediate debriefing and critiquing sessions afterward, to optimize student learning.”

In accordance with their roles at the region’s only academic medical center, staff members at the UT Center for Advanced Medical Simulation employ a model by which they continually study their own training and teaching techniques as well as how others best learn. As a result, they can continually modify their training modules and methods to help those they teach maximize what they’ve learned on behalf of their patients.

About The University of Tennessee Medical Center
The mission of The University of Tennessee Medical Center, the region’s only hospital to achieve status as a Magnet® recognized organization, is to serve through healing, education and discovery. UT Medical Center, a 581-bed, not-for-profit academic medical center, serves as a referral center for Eastern Tennessee, Southeast Kentucky and Western North Carolina. The medical center, the region’s only Level I Trauma Center, is one of the largest employers in Knoxville. For more information about The University of Tennessee Medical Center, visit online at www.utmedicalcenter.org.

About the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine
The University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine in Knoxville is part of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, the statewide academic health system. The Graduate School of Medicine is home to more than 200 teaching physicians and researchers; more than 190 medical and dental resident physicians in 12 residency and nine fellowship programs; and more than 180 volunteer faculty physicians and dentists. The school, together with clinical partner University Health System, Inc., form The University of Tennessee Medical Center, the only academic medical center in the area. For more information about the UT Graduate School of Medicine, visit http://gsm.utmck.edu.