OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare learning curves for laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) after training on a proficiency based virtual reality (VR) curriculum with that of a traditionally trained group. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: Simulator-based training has been shown to improve technical performance during real laparoscopic procedures, although research ...

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether a simulated training scenario improved resident performance in operative hysteroscopic resection. STUDY DESIGN: An interventional cohort study evaluated the ability of a hysteroscopic simulation model to improve resident performance in hysteroscopy. Residents were evaluated on operative hysteroscopy before training and ...

OBJECTIVE: Evolving endovascular therapies have transformed the management of vascular disease. At the same time, the increasing use of non-invasive vascular imaging techniques has reduced the opportunities to gain the required basic wire and catheter handling skills by performing diagnostic catheterizations. This article reviews the evidence for alternative tools currently ...

In this study, a patient simulator was designed and fabricated to train students to respond to various clinical situations associated with heart-lung bypass machine operation and to respond to changes in patient clinical parameters. The students will use the simulator to gain pre-clinical experience. The training system will initially simulate ...

There are many patient assessment challenges in the prehospital setting, especially the estimation of external blood loss. Previous studies of experienced paramedics have demonstrated that external blood loss estimation is highly inaccurate. The objective of this study was to determine if undergraduate paramedic students could accurately estimate external blood loss ...

BACKGROUND: Before surgical simulators can be implemented for assessment of surgical training, their construct validity should be assessed. METHODS: Nine novices (NOV), nine medical students (MS), and nine residents (RES) underwent a laparoscopic skills training on the virtual reality (VR) simulator Lap Mentor. Assessment of laparoscopic skill was based on ...

BACKGROUND: Proficiency-based residency training programs can be more efficient than the current duration-based formats. For their successful implementation, appropriate proficiency criteria must be developed. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between technical skill performances assessed using computer- and expert-based methods and training year. An assumption was ...

BACKGROUND: Within the past decade, there has been increasing interest in simulation-based devices for training and assessment of technical skills, especially for minimally invasive techniques such as laparoscopy. The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions of senior and junior surgeons to virtual reality simulation within the context ...

The aim of this review was to outline current forms of surgical simulation and methods of assessing technical skills using these forms of simulation. To review this subject, a literature search was done using key words 'assessment', 'simulation', 'surgery', 'technical skills' and 'virtual reality'. Simulation in surgery has several forms, ...

INTRODUCTION: Previous studies on the difference between physical, augmented and virtual reality (VR) simulation state that haptic feedback is an important feature in laparoscopic suturing simulation. Objective assessment is important to improve skills during training. This study focuses on the additive value of VR simulation for laparoscopic suturing training. METHODS: ...

OBJECTIVES: To assess the effectiveness of adding a simulated anticoagulation clinic practical examination for formal assessment of PharmD students' skills. DESIGN: A practical examination requiring students to review a mock medical record and role-play a follow-up anticoagulation clinic visit with a standardized patient was designed. Students assessed the patient's vital ...

At the 2007 Digestive Diseases Week, the Education Committee of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract sponsored a symposium entitled "Simulation in Gastrointestinal Surgery." Four panelists presented perspectives on the role of simulation in education and training of medical students and residents in operations of Gastrointestinal Surgery in ...

Surgical education has dramatically changed in response to numerous constraints placed on residency programs, but a substantial gap in uniform practices exist, especially in the area of skills laboratory availability and usage. Simulation-based training has gained significant momentum and will be a requirement for residencies in the near future. In ...

Amphibian experiments on nerve-muscle preparation and heart are essential as per first year MBBS practical syllabus, for learning basic concepts in Physiology. Need was felt to design and develop computer based simulation software as an alternative to animal use, due to growing concern and stringent laws imposed by animal ethical ...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Poor standards in colonoscopy services and the introduction of a colorectal cancer screening program in the United Kingdom have highlighted the need to establish high-quality training and competency assessments in colonoscopy. The aims of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of a 1-week hands-on colonoscopy course ...

This article describes an Internet-based instructional tool designed to give predoctoral dental students a virtual simulation of clinical pediatric dentistry to develop their pediatric behavior management knowledge. Effectiveness of this tool was evaluated using two consecutive classes of junior dental students. The control group was exposed to the traditional behavior ...

Simulation-based learning is an emerging learning modality with promising potential for certified nurse-midwife (CNM) and certified midwife (CM) education. Unlike standard didactic methods, simulation-based learning affords opportunities to address multiple domains of learning and performance. Unlike standard clinical education, simulation-based learning provides learners exposure to events that are rare in ...

Wordom is a versatile program for manipulation of molecular dynamics trajectories and efficient analysis of simulations. Original tools in Wordom include a procedure to evaluate significance of sampling for principal component analysis as well as modules for clustering multiple conformations and evaluation of order parameters for folding and aggregation. The ...

BACKGROUND: The first step toward increasing the level of patient safety in endoscopic surgery is for all endoscopic surgeons to acquire fundamental skills, including psychomotor skills, in the preoperation stage of training. The current study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of virtual reality (VR) simulator training and box training for ...

OBJECTIVE: Appropriate emergency measures are essential in improving the outcome of patients with thoracic injuries. Pathophysiological background and basic principles of emergency treatment decisions should be already taught in undergraduate medical curricula. The effectiveness of a computer simulation model on thoracic trauma management was evaluated. METHODS: Forty-one students were enrolled ...

It has traditionally been argued that recycling municipal solid waste (MSW) is usually not economically viable and that only when externalities, long-term dynamic considerations, and/or the entire product life cycle are taken into account, recycling becomes worthwhile from a social point of view. This article explores the results of a ...

BACKGROUND: The impact of high-fidelity simulators as an adjunct for endovascular training of general surgery residents has not yet been defined. The purpose of this study was to evaluate general surgery resident perspectives on the value of a simulator-based endovascular training program by using various measurement tools. METHODS: General surgery ...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Virtual reality is a computer-generated system that provides a representation of an environment. This review will analyse the literature with regard to any benefit to be derived from training with virtual reality equipment and to describe the current equipment available. RECENT FINDINGS: Virtual reality systems are not ...

Scientific publications in the field of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) are raising up since the last twenty years. The value of EUS is directly proportional to the training, skill and experience of the endosonographer. In a recent series, the lowest annual number of examinations requested per year might be around 200-250 ...

BACKGROUND: Minimal access surgery (MAS) is increasingly replacing open surgery. However, access to training in laparoscopy remains lacking. We propose the use of a novel and integrated laparoscopic simulator (i-Sim) to develop surgical skills. OBJECTIVES: This pilot study set out to evaluate access to laparoscopic training facilities in the UK. ...

This new training method is based on developing a sound understanding of the sequence in which electrical excitation spreads through both the normal and the infarcted myocardium. The student is made aware of the cardiac electrical performance through a series of 3-dimensional pictures during the excitation process. The electrocardiogram 3D ...

BACKGROUND: Students of interventional spine procedures typically learn needle injection technique using cadaver specimens or live patients in an operating room. This can be expensive, inefficient, uncomfortable to patients, and requires a significant time commitment from teaching staff. PURPOSE: To present a simple and inexpensive simulator using a cut of ...

Proceedings : IUFRO Kanazawa 2003 "Forest Insect Population Dynamics and Host Influences"., Scedule:14－19 September 2003, Vemue: Kanazawa Citymonde Hotel, Kanazawa, Japan, Joint metting of IUFRO working groups : 7.01.02 Tree resistance to Insects | 7.03.06 Integrated management of forset defoloating insects | 7.03.07 Population dynamics of forest insects, Sponsored by: ...

BACKGROUND: Simulation technology is widely used in medical education. Linking educational outcomes achieved in a controlled environment to patient care improvement is a constant challenge. METHODS: This was a retrospective case-control study of cardiac arrest team responses from January to June 2004 at a university-affiliated internal medicine residency program. Medical ...

OBJECTIVES: To determine the effectiveness and student acceptance of using a human patient simulation (HPS) training module focused on interdisciplinary teamwork skills. DESIGN: During their second-professional year, all pharmacy students were in enrolled in Principles of Pharmacotherapy 4: Cardiovascular Diseases and Patient Care Lab IV, a problem-based learning course. As ...

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of simulation-based learning on doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students' ability to perform accurate blood pressure assessments and to measure student satisfaction with this novel teaching method. METHODS: Didactic lectures on blood pressure assessment were combined with practical sessions using a high-fidelity computerized patient simulator. Before ...

BACKGROUND: Very few studies have addressed the transferability of skills from virtual reality (VR) to real life. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of teaching intracorporeal knot tying (ICKT) by VR simulation only. METHODS: Twenty novices underwent structured training of basic skills training on ...

Assessment and evaluation are integral parts of any educational and training process, and students at all levels of training respond by studying more seriously for the parts of the course or training that are assessed. To promote and enhance effective learning successfully, simulation and other teaching methods should be both ...

Simulation training is an essential educational strategy for health care systems to improve patient safety. The strength of simulation training is its suitability for multidisciplinary team training. There is good evidence that simulation training improves provider and team self-efficacy and competence on manikins. There is also good evidence that procedural ...

High fidelity (HF) simulators have become more common in residency training programs. We hypothesized that high fidelity (HF) simulation-based assessment of patient care competency could differentiate novice from experienced residents. Prospective study of 44 emergency medicine residents. A simulated case of anaphylactic shock was administered to each participating resident utilizing ...

BACKGROUND: Medical students experience a considerable amount of discomfort during their training. The purpose of the current study was to identify sources of student anxiety when learning clinical breast examinations (CBEs) and to evaluate the effects of simulated breast models on student comfort. METHODS: Simulated breast models were introduced into ...

In this article, we combine two analogue experiments in which we empirically examined three malingering methodological issues in individuals trained and instructed to simulate posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI; Briere, 1995). In Experiment 1, we examined TSI scale effects of the following manipulations using a ...

When conducting psychological evaluations, clinicians typically assume that the subject being evaluated is putting forth maximal effort and is not exaggerating or magnifying symptom complaints. While the field of neuropsychology has identified that factors, such as effort and motivation, can significantly interfere with correct interpretation of self-reported symptoms and test ...

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether the practice and rehearsal of communication skills is likely to lead to better outcomes following training, and whether the use of simulated patients in training is likely to be superior to role-play in terms of communication skill acquisition. METHODS: The databases Medline, Amed, Cinahl, BNI, Embase, ...

BACKGROUND: Achieving proficiency in flexible endoscopy requires a great amount of practice. Virtual reality (VR) simulators could provide an effective alternative for clinical training. This study aimed to gain insight into the proficiency curve for basic endoscope navigation skills with training on the GI Mentor II. METHODS: For this study, ...

BACKGROUND: Making diagnoses in oral pathology are often difficult and confusing in dental practice, especially for the less-experienced dental student. One of the most promising areas in bioinformatics is computer-aided diagnosis, where a computer system is capable of imitating human reasoning ability and provides diagnoses with an accuracy approaching that ...

Traditionally, surgical trainees have acquired their technical skills whilst working in the operating theatre alongside more senior surgeons in an apprenticeship model. Recently, changes in surgical practice have challenged this traditional approach, including reduced working hours, decreased availability of operating theatre time, increased cost of operating theatre time and increasing ...

In this special issue on virtual biomedical universities and e-learning we will make a survey on the principal existing teaching applications of ICT used in medical Schools around the world. In the following we identify five types of research and experiments in this field of medical e-learning and virtual medical ...

Selective reduction of bone without collateral damage (nerves, teeth) is essential in apicectomy. To test whether skills acquired on a virtual apicectomy simulator (VOXEL-MAN system with integrated force-feedback) are transferable from virtual to physical reality, two groups of trainees were compared. Group 1 received computer-based virtual surgical training before performing ...

Across a variety of operational environments, virtual reality (VR) is being increasingly used as a means of simulating hazardous work conditions in order to allow trainees to practice advanced cognitive skills such as problem-solving and decision-making. Replicating dangerous conditions particularly involving heavy machinery in the real world can be dangerous ...

Discrete-trial training (DTT) relies critically on implementation by trained tutors. We report three experiments carried out in the development of "DTkid"--interactive computer simulation software that presents "SIMon", a realistic virtual child with whom novice tutors can learn and practise DTT techniques. Experiments 1 and 2 exposed groups of participants either ...

It is becoming increasingly difficult to learn interventional radiology (IR) skills because there are fewer "straightforward" invasive diagnostic imaging studies, a reduction in the time available for training, concerns about patient safety, and changing patient perceptions. Computer-based simulation has the potential to allow an operator to realistically perform a virtual ...

The quality of education, CPR guidelines and the chain of survival all contribute to patient outcome following cardiac arrest. Increasing concerns about patient safety have focused attention on the methods used to train and prepare doctors for clinical practice. Reductions in clinical exposure at both undergraduate and postgraduate level have ...

BACKGROUND: The respiratory care department of one campus within our health system evaluated simulation-based medical education for training and competency evaluation of the mini bronchoalveolar lavage (mini-BAL) procedure, with an emphasis on patient safety and procedure performance standards. METHODS: Training and competency evaluation occurred in 4 phases. In phase one, ...

We have proposed an extension to the Q-learning algorithm that incorporates the existing clinical expertise into the trial-and-error process of acquiring an appropriate administration strategy of rHuEPO to patients with anemia due to ESRD. The specific modification lies in multiple updates of the Q-values for several dose/response combinations during a ...