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Medical Simulator Goes to the Head of the Class
Medical Simulator Goes to the Head of the Class
The Medical School's innovative efforts to integrate medical simulation into the educational process were showcased recently in the Classroom of the Future exhibit at HMS. About 200 attendees of the Council for Harvard Medicine, the 13-school consortium (a group of major research-centered medical schools), and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) participated in the exhibit as if they were medical students, taking part in hands-on learning with an array of educational technologies.
Nancy Oriol (center), HMS dean for students, and HMS students Wally Bethune (left) and Ben White demonstrate use of the simulated patient, a key component of the Classroom of the Future. (Photo by Liza Green, HMS Media Services)
After visiting the exhibit, AAMC president Jordan Cohen noted in his keynote address at the AAMC annual meeting, held in Boston Nov. 5 to 10, that medical education has been remarkably conservative in adopting new educational technologies. He challenged the audience to explore new learning approaches that can harness the power of technology while preserving the best aspects of traditional teaching.
At the Classroom of the Future exhibit, the case of the day was asthma. The setup, a blend of a traditional tutorial room and simulator lab, featured the usual HMS classroom technology, including a Web-enabled display monitor, along with a hospital bed and patient simulator placed alongside a tutorial conference table and chairs. The electronic patient displayed symptoms, complaining to the "doctors" about shortness of breath. Participants had to navigate an entire care episode, conducting a real-time interview and exam, considering differential diagnoses and test results, instituting a treatment plan, and communicating with the patient and other providers. They then turned to the traditional classroom and discussed aspects of the case, exploring relevant sciences down to the cellular and molecular mechanisms. The educational platform MyCourses animated material on the large-screen displays, including annotated diagrams, radiography, virtual microscopy, and gross anatomical specimens.
| "Now, with the simulator, students can see virtually any patient in the curriculum, on demand." |
Likening medical simulation for students to flight simulation for pilots, Nancy Oriol, HMS associate professor of anesthesia at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and HMS dean for students, said that the Classroom of the Future allows for a safe "practice-makes-perfect" environment. Students can practice clinical judgment, communication, and action skills as many times as required. Adding the "hands-on" care makes the learning indelible, she said. And instead of relying on chance encounters with patients to teach a student about a particular diagnosis, the Classroom of the Future allows students to experience the entire range of clinical cases spanning the spectrum of age, culture, and gender.
James Gordon (center), HMS assistant professor of medicine at MGH, instructs HMS students (clockwise from lower left) Sarah Kempe-Mehl, Karimi Gituma, David Lee, and Henry Delu as they work with a simulated patient. (Photo by Liza Green, HMS Media Services)
James Gordon (center), HMS assistant professor of medicine at MGH, instructs HMS students (from left) Sarah Kempe-Mehl, Karimi Gituma, David Lee, and Henry Delu as they work with a simulated patient. (Photo by Liza Green, HMS Media Services)
"From an educational standpoint, we would like all medical students to have meaningful experiences that represent the full spectrum of medicine," Gordon said. "But we cannot guarantee that every student, for example, will care for someone with severe asthma. Now, with the simulator, students can see virtually any patient in the curriculum, on demand."
In the new integrated clerkship at Cambridge Hospital (a pilot program of the HMS Medical Education Reform initiative), students are exposed to simulated cases biweekly that correlate to their coursework and when needed to fill in the gaps of their education. Gordon animates the clinical case material the students are studying, creating a potential model for how the simulator experience can become incorporated into clinical education.
The Classroom of the Future was designed to demonstrate simulated bedside teaching and the value of combining it with other educational technologies. Gordon and Oriol collaborated in its development with faculty across the HMS community, demonstrating the synergy of teamwork in the future of medical education.
--Leah Gourley