Objective Requirements to Reduce or Eliminate the use of Live Tissue and Cadavers in Military Medical Training
The Army Research Lab Simulation Technology Training Center (ARL STTC) contracted IVIR for the “Objective Requirements to Reduce or Eliminate the Use of Live Tissue and Cadavers in Military Medical Training” project. The major project tasks consisted of the following:
1. Researched and inventoried the use of live tissue in medical education
2. Researched and inventoried available medical simulation technologies to minimize and/or replace live tissue in medical education
3. Provided a scientific basis for the live tissue replication utilizing live tissue property data and realistic materials research and instantiation
4. Used mathematical descriptions of human physiology for materials
5. Demonstrated the concept with a functioning organ system
Very few studies have been conducted comparing inanimate and animate simulation. No study was found dedicated to the advantages of the use of live tissue in combat trauma training; however, several studies documented the efficacy of the use of inanimate simulation.
Sponsor:
U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM-STTC)Award Date:
November, 2010Contract #:
W91CRB-11-C-0019Status:
DeliveredLive Tissue Cadavers
The minimization or elimination of live tissue training will depend on the investment in the advancement of medical simulation technology. It also will require a reconsideration of trauma teaching curriculum, algorithms, and instructional modality integration. It will most likely be evolutionary rather than revolutionary, and it will be driven by an overriding principle which is to provide the best possible training for medical warfighters for combat trauma to save lives on the battlefield.
Simulation is the ultimate information visualization technology, especially when its suspension of disbelief components is maximized.
