Where are the sim centers?

[chicamedica]

---

Members do not see this ad.

i'm a rising 4th year, starting to make up a list of programs to apply to for residency, and just wanted to get an idea of what programs have sim centers and which are good sim centers vs bad.

These are the ones i know of so far:

MSSM
UPMC
Emory
MGH

Any others?

 

[rn29306]

Medical College of Georgia. Pretty amazing sim, individual teeth break off and he can vomit / aspirate.

 

[MTGas2B]

University of Washington has one.

 

[VentdependenT]

Midwest wise:
In Chicago Loyola, Rush, NWU, and U of C have simulators (But I think U of C is a sim center. Too lazy to investigate the difference)
U Iowa's got one
U MIch's got one
Wash U and SLU have em too

I'm sure there are many more

 

[chicamedica]

Medical College of Georgia. Pretty amazing sim, individual teeth break off and he can vomit / aspirate.

OMG Does the vomit actually come out??

 

[chicamedica]

Thanks a lot for the replies!

any more on the east coast?

Also, if a program doesn't have a sim center do they have their residents use a neighboring program's sim ctr?

 

[Skip Intro]

any more on the east coast?

Supposedly, Penn St. and Mt. Sinai (that you already mentioned) are the two biggest simulation centers in the east coast area. A lot of simulation research comes out of both. And, IIRC, Mt. Sinai has serial # 00001 and PSU has serial # 00002 dummies. Shows an early and robust investment into simulation, if you're really into that. And, I know for a fact that Maimonides residents, as one example, rotate at MSSM for simulation.

-Skip

 

[cabby]

Not East Coast but don't forget one of the innovators in Sim, Stanford.

Dr. Gaba pioneered Anes. Crisis Resource Management which parallels the emergency training all commercial pilots go through.

i'm a rising 4th year, starting to make up a list of programs to apply to for residency, and just wanted to get an idea of what programs have sim centers and which are good sim centers vs bad.

These are the ones i know of so far:

MSSM
UPMC
Emory
MGH

Any others?

 

[GasPundit]

UF invented the simulator every other school now uses, and sold the rights to METI.

On the East Coast:

Wake
Duke
UF

I interviewed at these locations, and was impressed at how they integrated the simulators into the curriculum.

I'm not sure what UPMC refers to, but if it is UPenn, they did not have a simulator when I interviewed there.

 

[hermione]

UPMC is Pitt, not Penn, which is in Philly.

 

[cak]

Temple has a brand new one that they just built. I don't know if they've integrated it into resident education yet, but I'm pretty sure they have plans to in the near future.

 

[Brian Pavlovitz]

University of Rochester has one, too.

...Rochester NY, that is.

 

[joshmir]

(bias- heading to BID as a CA-1)

There was recently a huge New York Times magazine/New Yorker article on sims. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the pioneers in overall medical sim technology are stanford and Harvard Medical School's combined anesthesia depts, which jointly run their simulator (for gas, trauma, er, surgery, interventional rads, etc sims). they have published the most; i saw them present at RSNA this past year. So add MGH, Brigham and Women's, and Beth Israel Deaconess to the list (Boston)

Interestingly, they did a study that showed sim training does NOT decrease anxiety or stress when an incoming ca-1 resident gets extensive sim time compared to his/her classmates, and if i remmebr correctly didn't improve their performance. therefore, they concluded it's role in this regard is in question. (the abstract can be googled with BID, simulator, anesthesia residents, etc as search terms)

there are also online simulators.

University of Rochester has one, too.

...Rochester NY, that is.

 

[Tenesma]

there are different types of simulators
1) task-oriented (intubation, chest tubes, bronchoscopy)
2) behavior-oriented (crisis management).

The 1st top notch task-oriented one was definitely UF... The best behavior oriented ones are Stanford's and Harvard's - and they have managed to combine some of the task-oriented simulation within their behavior-oriented one....

I wouldn't let this guide your decision on choosing a residency, because i think there are many more important factors - however it is nice to know that it is available... Plus don't get fooled with fancy advertising about a great simulator when you might only get to use it 3 times during your residency....

 

[Skip Intro]

I wouldn't let this guide your decision on choosing a residency

Ditto.

-Skip

 

[cchoukal]

On the interview trail, the best sim center I saw was pitt. They seemed to have the most organized and integrated curriculum. They also seemed to have the most models, including the sim-person, full OR, set-up, as well as more task-specific models. Someone above mentioned Stanford, but their center appeared small and somewhat outdated. The degree to which it was integrated into the curriculum was not emphasized. U of C talked a lot about seminars and workshops with task specific models, but I didn't see or hear much about full-OR sim machines.

 

[AJM]

Someone above mentioned Stanford, but their center appeared small and somewhat outdated. The degree to which it was integrated into the curriculum was not emphasized.

Small and outdated? Really? 😕
Now I don't know much about sims, since I'm not in anesthesia, but Stanford's sim center did not seem small or outdated to me. The one at the VA (which is the one the Stanford residents use the most) is a full OR set complete with all the equipment and meds available in the Stanford and VA ORs. As IM residents we would use it to practice crisis management during codes. The anesthesia residents use it to practice various situations that might happen in the OR.
They might have showed you the small center they have at Stanford Hospital instead (not the one in the Palo Alto VA) -- that one has various simulators for bronchs, lines, etc, but I don't think it has been quite as extensively developed.

 

[chicamedica]

Wow guys, thanks so much!

Yeah Pitt's sim center is BRAND spanking new, and i agree it is awesome and very integrated into resident (and med student) training.

Weird that penn doesn't have a sim center. . .why is that? Do they use Temple's?

Also, does hopkins have one?

 

[Mman]

The vast majority of programs I applied to had simulation centers. It's becoming pretty standard across the country.

 

[cchoukal]

Small and outdated? Really? 😕
Now I don't know much about sims, since I'm not in anesthesia, but Stanford's sim center did not seem small or outdated to me. The one at the VA (which is the one the Stanford residents use the most) is a full OR set complete with all the equipment and meds available in the Stanford and VA ORs. As IM residents we would use it to practice crisis management during codes. The anesthesia residents use it to practice various situations that might happen in the OR.
They might have showed you the small center they have at Stanford Hospital instead (not the one in the Palo Alto VA) -- that one has various simulators for bronchs, lines, etc, but I don't think it has been quite as extensively developed.

It was definitely at the VA. Maybe outdated isn't the right word. It was more like it didn't seem as clean and well taken care of; there was a lot of clutter. Maybe it's a great facility, but not as flashy as some of the newer ones I saw on the trail. I suspect these things are like the newest cars: the technology advances very quickly, so one that's even a couple years old looks like crap compared to the newer models.

 

[chicamedica]

It was definitely at the VA. Maybe outdated isn't the right word. It was more like it didn't seem as clean and well taken care of; there was a lot of clutter. Maybe it's a great facility, but not as flashy as some of the newer ones I saw on the trail. I suspect these things are like the newest cars: the technology advances very quickly, so one that's even a couple years old looks like crap compared to the newer models.

perhaps, cluttered=used a lot! 😉

 

[hermanodequeso]

UCSF has a simulator @ San Fran General....more behavior oriented in crisis management.

 

[UTSouthwestern]

One here at Southwestern.

 

[Molly Maquire]

Stony Brook on Long Island, NY has one.

 

[Pinky]

Some programs that don't have their own often contract to use a neighboring center's sim. UIC uses the one at Rush. It's pretty convenient as Rush is across the street. It's a ten minute walk from the UIC Anesthesia dept to the Anesthesia dept at Rush.

 

[blocks]

UC Davis highlighted their SIM training on interview day, theirs and Stanford's were the 2 best I saw on the trail.