Florida Anesthesia Computer and Engineering Team
©
University of Florida, 1996
A team of faculty members and engineers has developed an operational anesthesia simulator that is used to teach anesthesiology residents in much the same way that astronauts and pilots are taught. Using a manikin, a fully functional anesthesia machine complete with monitors, compressed gases, vaporizers, breathing circuit, ventilator, and mechanical valves, sophisticated computer hardware and software, and educational ideas from the faculty, the anesthesia simulator has become an integral part of the early training of our residents. The manikin has been constructed to simulate an actual patient. It breathes, produces carbon dioxide, consumes oxygen, has breath sounds, blood pressure, pulse, and oxygen saturation, and responds to neuromuscular stimulation as a real patient would. The manikin can also be ventilated manually or with the help of the mechanical ventilator after anesthesia has been induced. Extensive pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic models, as well as cardiovascular and respiratory models, control the actions and the reactions of the manikin. Clinicians can develop basic skills in induction, maintenance and reversal of anesthesia, monitoring, and operation of the anesthesia machine far more rapidly and safely than when traditional methods of teaching are used. In addition, more advanced clinicians learn to diagnose and treat simulated problems that occur only rarely during anesthesia but are life-threatening when they do (e.g., malignant hyperthermia, selected anesthesia machine malfunctions). In the simulator, a large number of sensors have been placed in the manikin, the anesthesia machine, and the drug delivery component to monitor the reactions and actions of the physician challenged by the simulator.
Apart from the use of the simulator for teaching and training exercises, the simulator can also be used to evaluate new anesthesia and monitoring equipment. The use-model of this equipment can be examined closely, while the clinician is being stressed by real clinical situations. Design flaws in the newly developed equipment can be pointed out and refined in a short time period without the need for extensive intraoperative evaluations.
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