Double Wins for CMU Simulation Centers

All image credits: Central Michigan University

Central Michigan University's (CMU) College of Medicine’s simulationcenters in Mount Pleasant and Saginaw, Michigan, were awarded fullaccreditation in teaching and education. CMU has also announced that a roboticsurgery training system has been installed in its Covenant HealthCareSimulation Center in Saginaw.

The Society for Simulation in Healthcare's (SSH) five-yearaccreditation puts CMU among just four colleges and universities in Michiganwith SSH-accredited programs and among the roughly 110 accredited programs in20 countries. The three programs in Michigan are at Michigan State University,Western Michigan University and Lansing Community College.

To earn full accreditation in teaching and education,programs have to demonstrate regular, recurring simulation educationalactivities with clearly stated objectives and provide evidence of ongoingimprovement.

“The accreditors were particularly impressed with therequired faculty training for all facilitators,” said Dr. Robert Sasso,director of the Saginaw-based simulation center.

The da Vinci advantage

Covenant HealthCare is helping the simulation center stay onthe cutting edge of technology with its recent donation of a da Vinci roboticsurgical training system.

Having a da Vinci system is significant not only in that itallows physicians to perform refined and minimally invasive surgery, but it also"gives surgeons their wrists back," said Sasso, explaining thattraditional laparoscopic surgery does not typically utilize articulatedinstruments.

Plus, the separate control panel gives surgeons even finermotor skills than bare hands because modifications have taken away evenmicrotremors, he said.

"Residents will be highly prepared to start doing theirfirst robotic case with great skill even before hitting the operatingroom," Sasso said.

Robotic surgery is one of the best minimally invasiveoptions available to help patients, said Dr. Elizabeth Paulus in CMU Health'ssurgery department in Saginaw. Paulus is among the few female surgeons inMichigan to perform a robotic Whipple surgery for pancreatic cancer using theda Vinci robotic system.

"It's reallysignificant that in Saginaw we have state-of-the-art medical care that is notavailable at a lot of hospitals," said Paulus.

Ed Bruff, president and CEO of Covenant Healthcare, agrees: "Providingthe latest technology to our teams and students is important to Covenant. Weare proud to sponsor the simulation lab in Saginaw, and we want it to be fittedwith state-of-the-art technology to support the next generation of doctorsdevelop their skills."