Network Coordinates High-Tech Education

Northwestern Missions

Most of the McGaw Medical Center hospitals have developed a wide array of simulation capabilities out of a desire to educate physicians and others using the latest technologies. Good way to hone existing skills or learn new ones.Yet many involved felt the need for more coordination, and that’s why the Northwestern McGaw Simulation Network came into being.

Explains network director John A. Vozenilek III, MD, GME ’00, “We are trying to support all the simulation centers and their work, create ways to formalize collaboration, and provide a forum for jointly planning the future of simulation at Northwestern. So, instead of having pockets of excellence within the system, we’ll have a well-supported system that reaches beyond the individual hospitals.�

Dr. Vozenilek is assistant professor of clinical emergency medicine with a secondary appointment in medical education at the Feinberg School of Medicine. In addition, he directs the two simulation centers of the Center for Simulation Technology and Academic Research at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare. At present the simulation network has five participants: the Feinberg School’s Clinical Education Center and Northwestern Center for Advanced Surgical Education; Evanston Northwestern Healthcare’s Patient Safety Simulation Simulation centers also help train paramedics from surrounding communities.Center and Center for Simulation Technology and Academic Research; and KidStar at Children’s Memorial.

High-fidelity simulation is the wave of the future in medical education. By using simulators, students can practice procedures and perfect their diagnostic and treatment skills before they actually see patients. They also are exposed to simulated patient care situations that they otherwise might not encounter.

Some simulation tools are computer models, others are patient simulators, which are exact replicas of human beings. These simulators can bleed, urinate, and demonstrate human vital signs. Some can even “talk� to the student when a medical educator uses a microphone to speak for the “patient,� answering questions and providing diagnostic information.

See story on — another award for Dr. Wayne.

In April 2007 Diane Bronstein Wayne, MD ’91, associate professor of medicine, won the Society of General Internal Medicine’s National Award for Scholarship in Medical Education for her research documenting the benefits of simulation-based training of internal medicine residents and its overall positive effect on patient care. This research was performed at the Patient Safety Simulation Center at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare.