Campbell Med SIM Team impacts international conference

ORLANDO, Florida — Campbell University Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine was well-represented this year at the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) held in Orlando, Florida.

Dr. Steven Halm, assistant dean for simulation medicine, Mr. Bob Schmid, simulation center technical director, Mr. Brian Mann, director of simulation education, and Mr. Dusty Barbour, simulation technician, presented numerous “works in progress” programs at the meeting. The presentations, ranging from e-poster presentations to large group presentations, highlighted research and innovative approaches to simulation recently developed and implemented in the Campbell Med Sim Center. The faculty also attended educational sessions at the conference and collaborated with other leaders in healthcare simulation from all over the world.

The Campbell team hosted live simulated surgical demonstrations in the exhibit hall featuring Mann and Barbour sharing how Campbell Med uses SimuLab’s Surgical Abdomen trainer in the simulation curriculum for third-year medical students.

“We had a big crowd at our demonstration – educators from other medical schools as well as folks who work in hospital based training and EMT services,” said Professor Mann. “We demonstrated how we use the trainer and offered hands-on experience to the session attendees – having the opportunity to put your hands on the equipment was helpful with brainstorming and discussing what the options are for using this equipment in their own labs.”

Fourth-year medical student John Bunyasaranand hosted the session the team is most proud of because of its impact on attendees. A former medic in the United States Army, Bunyasaranand demonstrated how functional simulation models of medical procedures could be created with limited resources as he had done when training his medic team in Afghanistan. Session attendees were so intrigued they continued to share innovative models hours after the session ended.

“The session was very popular,” said Mr. Thomas Edward Jackson, III from the University Colorado Health System as he showed one of the models to colleagues in the conference center lobby. “It was incredibly engaging and useful.”

The team was proud of Bunyasaranand ‘s presentation and thankful for the opportunity to learn and to share what Campbell Med is doing in simulation education.

“We returned from IMSH with a renewed vision and sense of confidence,” said Dr. Halm. “We look forward to continuing to use medical simulation to lead medical school education in new directions while providing students with a safe learning environment to make connections needed to be the best healthcare providers of the future.”