“They Have Created The Blueprint For The Future Of Medical Simulation Solutions”

The medical simulation centre at NTNU was referred to as a “blueprint for the future of medical simulation” when Caverion Norway, the team behind the smart solution, recently won first place in two categories at the Crestron Integration Awards.

Medical simulation is a teaching method that uses an advanced computer-controlled mannequin and realistic surroundings to recreate patient scenarios from the real world. The simulations are a vital means of helping healthcare professionals learn by trial and error without putting lives at risk.

Against all odds

When Caverion’s branch in Trondheim was given the challenge of developing a new simulation solution for the NTNU’s Faculty of Health and Social Science, it quickly became apparent that the desired solution would pose major engineering challenges that had never been solved before.

Caverion’s Project Manager, Thor Berg, explains that the challenge lay in the inability of existing solutions for medical simulations to communicate with existing audiovisual systems.

“I was convinced we would be able to overcome the problem and we proved the doubters wrong. But, we also put in over 500 hours on different options before we reached the final design,” he says.

Unique solution

Ulrika Eriksson, the Operations Manager at NTNU, says that in traditional centres for medical simulation, every single practice station is linked to a separate control room where experienced healthcare personnel monitor the students’ progress through a one-way mirror while they treat the ‘patient’.