School of Medicine

Simulation: A Radical New Tool of Instruction

A collaborative initiative of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, and Johns Hopkins Hospital, the Center for Simulation Research and Training offers an interactive environment for medical students, residents, nurses, and other health professionals to practice diagnostic and communication skills before applying them on patients.

Since opening in 2008, the Simulation (SIM) Center has become a hub of activity; utilization rates have soared beyond capacity and various student and clinical groups are wait-listed. Medical students spend, on average, 100 hours per year in the Simulation Center. Our next phase of growth includes a 30,000 square foot facility with expanded capabilities.

The Simulation Center incorporates five types of simulation including:

Human patient simulation
High-fidelity mannequins breathe, have heart tones and palpable pulses, and are connected to monitors displaying multiple physical functions (e.g., EKG, blood pressure, arterial wave forms). Simulated procedures include ventilation, intubation, defibrillation, chest tube placement, and emergency tracheostomy.

Virtual reality simulation
Advanced computerized technology allows advanced trainees to learn or practice performing cardiac catheterization, diagnostic tests (e.g. colonoscopy, bronchoscopy), and IV line placement.

Standardized patient simulation
These are individuals trained to play the roles of patients, family members, or others. Students practice skills such as physical exams, history taking, and communication.

Partial task trainer simulation
Students and trainees focus on a specific skill, such as intubation heads, central venous line chests, and umbilical artery and cannulation trainers.

Computerized simulation
Students practice decision-making skills and specific knowledge sets, such as a trauma management trainer.

The Center continues to explore new ways our simulation resources can be used to impact patient safety. In addition to providing many training and research opportunities, the Center also offers assessments, certification or credentialing required by various regulatory bodies, and gives nursing and medical students, as well as licensed house-staff, pharmacists, nurses, and respiratory therapists the opportunity to learn and practice procedures, while also using new equipment and technologies. In all of these roles, the Center functions as an invaluable resource for the Johns Hopkins medical community and beyond.

For more information on the Simulation Center, visit www.hopkinsmedicine.org/simulation_center/index.html.

Alumni Update

Kevin Billups, Med '84, to establish the Integrative Men's Health Program at Hopkins

By establishing this new Integrative Men’s Health Program at Hopkins—likely the first of its kind in the country—Billups hopes to address directly what he considers “a silent crisis in men’s health that is affecting every community in America.”

More than 50 percent of premature male deaths in this country are due to preventable but chronic medical conditions, Billups notes.

Over the past 25 years, Billups developed considerable skill treating erectile dysfunction, low testosterone and other men’s sexual health problems at the University of Minnesota. He returned to Hopkins last July to join the Brady Urological Institute as an associate professor and to establish the Integrative Men’s Health Program.

The new program will engage specialists in many fields, he says, “so there’s an appropriate referral to the other areas, whether it’s primary care, cardiology, endocrinology, the sleep center folks—wherever the men need to go.”

The program should be fully operational later this year.

To read the full article, click here.

Student News

Medical students use technology to improve care for patients served by free medical clinics

Third year medical student Eugene Semenov recognized a need for an electronic medical record system when he was a Hopkins undergraduate volunteering at the Baltimore Rescue Mission's free clinic. Although many of the same patients returned over weeks or months, there was no organized medical records system to provide them with thorough and efficient care.

“Clinic volunteers couldn't see which medicines the patient had been prescribed, the previous exam findings and diagnosis, the patient’s allergies or whether the patient had been referred for specialty care,” says Semenov. “There was no standardized tool at the clinic to collect and store that information.”

Providing effective care to the homeless is fraught with enough challenges: many have chronic diseases; lack nutrition, shelter and safety; have mental health and substance abuse problems; and are less likely to seek regular care.

So Semenov teamed up with fellow Johns Hopkins undergraduate student Michael Morris and later, with Hopkins medical students, Mark Fisher, Med '14, and Roosevelt Offaha, Med '13, to develop a secure EMR system for the clinic. They used open-source software, customized it with specific functionality and then put it on a secure server. It is believed to be the first of its kind designed by students for free health clinics that cannot afford a commercial EMR system.

To read more about this initiative, click here.

Breaking News

Vogelstein, Cancer Genetics Pioneer, Awarded Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences

Bert Vogelstein, M.D., Med '74, co-director of the Ludwig Center at Johns Hopkins and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator has been awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. He was selected for his landmark work in cancer genomics and tumor suppressor genes.

To read the full press release, click here.

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