Intensive Surgical & Trauma Skills Week (ISTSC) at Strategic Operations

A unique emergency room in San Diego, California will be inundated with trauma casualties and very sick people requiring surgery May 1-4, and second year medical students will be those performing surgeries. The simulated trauma scenarios will result from overturned cars, active shooters, a high-rise fire and improvised explosive devices. Real firefighters, paramedics and police will be the first responders at the scene.

All this will occur at Strategic Operations (STOPS) on the back lot of Stu Segall Productions TV/film studio and the ER and operating rooms are simulation labs constructed for a one-of-a-kind in the nation Intensive Surgical & Trauma Skills Course (ISTSC). Hyper-Realistic simulations will run Monday through Thursday at 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.

From May 1-4, Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine (RVUCOM) in Parker, Colorado, Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences (KCUMB) and the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (COMP) at Western University of Health Sciences will conduct the ISTSC at STOPS' Simulation Lab. Overhead catwalks and video camera systems enable live viewing and after-action review. Forty-five live-action, Hyper-Realistic® simulations of both medical and surgical problems will be created, immersing the participants from point of injury all the way through the ER and OR.

Thirty-five surgeries will be performed on live humans – wearing Strategic Operations’ simulators called “Cut Suits®” by 36 six second-year medical students, many teaching faculty, visiting surgeons and physicians, as well as surgical and ER residents and staff from Balboa Naval Hospital and local hospitals will participate.

“Medical students commonly state that they do not truly understand or recognize a textbook description of a disease or a syndrome until they experience the clinically applicable version of it,” said Strategic Operations Executive Vice President Kit Lavell.  “In efforts to reduce the gaps in knowledge and technical skills prior to starting third-year clinical clerkships as well as improve competencies and confidence, this week-long ISTSC mimics a General Surgery rotation.

Lavell said the ISTSC will use the “Cut-Suit®,” a human worn surgical simulator, stress-immersion, and other educational modalities in an effort to better prepare medical students for their third-year surgical and emergency medicine rotations. RVUCOM was the first medical school to incorporate the “Cut-Suit®” into medical student education, and when integrated into an ISTSC, it can provide that hands-on experience prior to clinical clerkships by presenting real-life scenarios to medical students in a flexible, safe, efficient and cost-conscious manner.

For more information or to follow ISSC week, visit www.strategic-operations.com and go to “Contact Us” Enter your e-mail and paste ISTSC_4-29-2018 in the remarks section of the web form.