Saturday, December 13, 2008

Cardiac emergency training takes toll - even on dummies

"Pocono Medical Center hosted a media event on Friday to demonstrate how cardiologists and support staff learn to use new technology. Two problems, the system was dead on arrival and "virtually" no one from the media showed up. The virtual patient, "Simantha," had unexpected technical problems that short-circuited the presentation by SimSuite Medical Simulation Corp. employees. Had Simantha been virtually alive and kicking, staff and physicians would have been able to try their hand at saving her life by performing a virtual cardiac procedure using new technology. Chances were good that she would have died during training in order teach the staff how to handle a crashing patient. None of that was able to happen thanks to intricate technology and its flaws. SimSuite, the 35-foot bus travels year round and stops at hospitals and medical centers in the hopes of training the staff on the latest treatments for lesions in coronary arteries that are difficult to treat due to their location or size" - Pocono Record

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