The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) and CAE Healthcare launched the second course for Anesthesia SimSTAT, their interactive, screen-based simulation training product. The new course, Anesthesia SimSTAT – Appendectomy, is designed to provide physician anesthesiologists with advanced training to manage challenging anesthetic emergencies in patients undergoing laparoscopic surgeries for acute appendicitis.

With Anesthesia SimSTAT – Appendectomy, learners navigate in a 3-D, fully functioning virtual operating room and participate in a series of high-fidelity simulation scenarios with a realistic patient who responds appropriately to clinical interactions. Anesthesia SimSTAT monitors and records the learner’s performance during the training and offers feedback after completion of a session. By participating in the course, physician anesthesiologists can fulfill continuing medical education (CME) and MOCA 2.0® Part II and IV requirements.

“The Anesthesia SimSTAT technology is the future of continuing medical education for anesthesia providers,” says Ronald Levy, M.D., member of ASA’s Editorial Board for Interactive Computer-Based Education, “in that it enables the user to improve and test their knowledge in a dynamic virtual online environment, on-demand, right from their computer or laptop.”

“Anesthesia SimSTAT – Appendectomy is the second of five courses that we’ll be introducing within the next two years,” said Dr. Levy. “With appendectomy, we wanted to create a scenario centered on a common emergency surgery. We have also taken the opportunity to make several key enhancements to the platform to make the environment and learners’ experience even more dynamic.”

Based on feedback gathered from more than 1,000 users of the first Anesthesia SimSTAT module, ASA and CAE Healthcare have integrated comprehensive performance tracking, eLearning and assessment tools that will result in more effective learning for practicing physicians and residents.

Anesthesia SimSTAT – Appendectomy’s enhanced features include:

• An interactive orientation tutorial to help users learn how to navigate the environment.
• More robust tracking of users’ actions and simplified, formative performance feedback.
• Increased eLearning capabilities including a pre-course survey and post-course evaluation, as well as post-course videos that allow the learner to go back and review completed simulated tasks.
• The option to pause the simulation if needed to allow for discussions between learners and facilitators as the virtual simulation progresses.

Since the launch of the first course, Anesthesia SimSTAT – Trauma, last year, user response for the technology has been positive, with 88 percent of learners reporting they were “satisfied with the course’s overall value in helping to improve their professional effectiveness” and 87 percent would “recommend the course to other colleagues.” Additionally, the course received a score of 92 percent regarding user satisfaction with the usefulness of the information presented within the course.

To learn more or to view a short video demo of SimSTAT – Appendectomy, visit www.asahq.org/appendectomy.