The STEPS Center, a medical simulation training and research center, opened Friday at West Virginia University. The Center features four separate labs that replicate the environments of emergency departments, pediatric and adult intensive care units and operating rooms. Each is equipped with advanced simulation mannequins that can mimic thousands of medical conditions and react realistically to simulated medical procedures, medicine and other factors. It also features equipment that will store all scenarios and connect WVU’s main and regional Health Sciences campuses. "This has been long coming, we have waited for this for a long time now, and I’m really happy it’s finally open," said Melvin Wright, an assistant professor of pediatrics. Wright has been working on the simulation center project at WVU for three years and has five years of experience using the simulation. "It is an advantage as a lot of life-threatening situations do not happen in daily life but are important. This is a great way to prepare students, doctors, nurses and all those working with the STEPS Center to learn how to deal with them," Wright said. The Center serves all the health professions programs at the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center. Students will work in multidisciplinary teams that parallel the teams they will join to provide health care in hospitals, clinics and the field. The opening was marked with a welcome note by David Wilks, assistant dean of technology in medical education and remarks by Chris Gould, legislative assistant on behalf of U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd. The opening was followed by a lecture and a reception on the HSC, which included tours of the Simulation Training Center. Richard M. Satava, of the Department of Surgery from University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle presented the keynote address, with a lecture titled "Robots – Virtual Reality and Beyond: the Future of Healthcare." He spoke on the fact that health care has traditionally been one of the only industries that does not utilize simulation, forcing health care professionals to perform perfectly during the procedure itself, even the first time they perform it. The simulation center now is changing that, he said, adding that robots are also going to be very important in the future of health care. "We are one of the few centers in the country with a fully equipped center," said Max Miranda, a digestive diseases a trainee at WVU, "and it is a big part of our work." The second phase of the STEPS Center will add around 8,000 feet of teaching space to the facility.
Be the first to comment on this article!