Cutting-edge skills teaching lab for doctors

A skills teaching laboratory, said to be equipped to enhance the clinical expertise of medical students and residents, was officially opened last Thursday at the University of West Indies' (UWI) Faculty of Medical Sciences.

The CHASE Carnegie Skills Laboratory, as the cutting-edge facility is officially called, was established with the assistance of a $25-million grant from the local CHASE Fund. In this laboratory, doctors-in-training and postgraduates are expected to acquire and hone skills through the use of patient models (dummies), surgical simulators, cadavers and anaesthetised, small animal models. There is also a tele/videoconferencing classroom that facilitates distance learning and teaching with other campuses in Jamaica and overseas, in particular Yale University.

In an interview outside the official launch, Professor Ivor Crandon, head of UWI's Department of Surgery, Radiology, Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, said, "There is nothing like this in the Caribbean, and this is on par with labs like this in other parts of the world."

The skills teaching lab is the brainchild of Crandon, and he played a critical role in mobilising resources for its establisment.

Crandon was asked about the training process of students prior to the establishment of the skills teaching laboratory. He indicated that the traditional training, for example, when he was in medical school, was for students to suture wounds on real patients in the emergency room, but under supervision.

Suture on animal models

"Now we will suture on ... models, so that by the time the students get to the emergency room they would have benefited from the learning curve," he stressed.

Crandon, whose department established the facility in collaboration with The CHASE Fund and the Medical Alumni of North America, was also careful to indicate that the laboratory would assist the university to maintain the high standards of its medical training, especially since there has been a dramatic increase in the intake of medical students in the last few years.

Currently, about 300 medical students are enrolled each year. Also, UWI's medical school, which hitherto enjoyed a singular position in the English-speaking Caribbean, now contends with increased competition, especially from United States-based off-shore medical schools and is being forced to make adjustments.

The cardiac simulator

Techniques in laparoscopic surgery will also be sharpened in the skills teaching lab, and the cardiac simulator, developed by local scientists, is one of the many simulators housed in the facility. The cardiac simulator uses computer software to animate a 'heart', allowing students to apply stitches and surgery in a mock human chest cavity under conditions similar to an operating theatre. The cardiac simulator, which has gained international recognition, is able to simulate vital body signs and can be made to imitate a cardiac arrest, thus providing realistic, real-time surgical training for medical residents and students.

Medical faculty dean, Professor Archibald McDonald, indicated at the launch ceremony that studies show that training through high-tech simulators produces better-performing students.

The use of models and high-tech simulators seems to be gaining wider acceptance internationally in medical training. Various publications indicate that simulator training provides interactive learning systems for emergency room crisis management, illustrates difficult concepts to students, and provides students with experience in managing especially uncommon patient situations.

Eulalee Thompson is health editor and a professional counsellor; email: eulalee.thompson@gleanerjm.com.