General InformationFor over a decade, the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Florida College of Medicine has supported the establishment of an engineering group that has now attained international recognition. This group, locally known as Florida Anesthesia Computer and Engineering Team (FACET), is a multifaceted group of physicians and engineers. It conducts interdisciplinary research in biomedical and health care technology, facilitates clinical and basic research, and actively engages in medical education. The FACET objective is to integrate computer applications, engineering technology, and medicine to improve the state-of-the-art of health care in general, and anesthesia in particular. Over the years, clinical faculty, nurses, engineers, residents, and students from both the University of Florida and the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands have actively engaged the group into research areas such as intraoperative monitoring and displays, information management, anesthesia delivery systems, simulation, and education. Significant successes to date are the completion of an anesthesia simulator and a number of imaginative training devices, a computer-based assessment program that gathers and stores a comprehensive preoperative evaluation, and intelligent alarm systems. FACET research has resulted in the granting of five patents plus four pending. Within our FACET group work on various projects has resulted in 20 degrees ranging from Bachelors of Science to Ph.D. Currently, research encompasses the field of artificial intelligence, the design of new anesthesia breathing systems, the construction of an anesthesia machine based on a radical new concept, the development of new training devices and the continued development of the Gainesville Anesthesia Simulator. For more information, we have summaries on the past, the present, and the future of FACET. |
Florida Anesthesiology