NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — When you go to the doctor or take your kids to one, you want someone who really knows what he or she is doing.
Simulation is helping health care workers learn in ways they never could before.
This week, Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk is hosting an international conference showcasing new ideas and high tech tools that could make your future doctor better, from virtual surgeries to making medical mannequins more realistic with moulage.
“Moulage is makeup and effects to simulate reality, so making things with silicone could be using makeup to put things on faces, making rashes, making all sorts of things.” said Joseph Waterson from the University of Kansas.
He was part of a four-hour presentation on the techniques at the event in Norfolk, where the future of health care education is on display for more than 200 simulation technologists.
“They run, manage, build, simulation that is specific to health care education,” explained Bob Armstrong. He is the executive director of the Sentara Center for Simulation and Immersive Learning at EVMS, and president-elect of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH), a non-profit membership organization committed to furthering and supporting the science of health care simulation.
SSH is sponsoring the event where people are learning how to make cutting edge training videos and how to save money on supplies by creating things, including plugs for an IV made with a 3D printer.
On the “showroom floor” companies are sharing the latest tools, like a stethoscope programmed with 100 normal and abnormal breathing sounds.
There is also a virtual reality ultrasound machine that lets students learn on their own.
“That’s going to help make people better doctors and develop mastery skill opportunities,” Armstrong said.
People from across the U.S. and seven countries signed up for the event, which runs through Friday.
