Simulation in Anesthesia
Anesthesiology resident Thaer M. Khalaf, MD, works with the anesthesia simulator in the Behling Human Simulation Center lab.
Our anesthesia simulator and mock OR have been designed to teach all levels of anesthesiology residents how to manage rare but critical events that transpire during the preoperative, perioperative and postoperative period.
Human errors are a leading cause of adverse anesthesia events that lead to poor patient outcomes and may play an important role in surgical errors as well. Fortunately, critical, life-threatening events do not present themselves often in anesthesia.
This, however, leads to the problem that even the most experienced anesthesiologists have often not managed these rare critical events during their careers. Simulation can fill a gap in educational training, allowing residents to practice and perfect their crisis management skills.
Rare critical event scenarios are presented in a simulated environment to give residents the unique opportunity to respond to crisis situations and develop the appropriate skills to manage them.
Crisis management training utilizing computer-driven simulators has been employed for many years in aviation, the nuclear power industry and various other industries. Anesthesiology has often emulated the airline industry in its development of safety regulations and is now developing anesthesia simulators for crisis management and other basic skills.