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By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Libby Char, Didi Leong and David Ueunten work to "save"
the human patient simulator at Queen's Medical Center.

Practice
makes perfect on
plastic patient

Queen's staffers use the new
computerized mannequin for some
hands-on experience in dealing
with life-threatening
emergency cases

By Rosemarie Bernardo
Star-Bulletin

A computerized mannequin named "Stan" lies on a gurney in the surgery procedure room while instructor Dr. Randy Steadman simulates a hernia repair. Dr. Maughn Matsuoka administers anesthesia for the "patient."

Later, Matsuoka opens Stan's mouth and places a tube down his throat. Steadman, with a computerized tablet, makes Stan experience physiological and cardiovascular problems dealing with hypoxemia, low oxygen in a patient's blood.

Members of the medical staff react as if Stan were a live patient.

Steadman and Stan are helping medical staff at Queen's Medical Center deal with hands-on emergencies.

"This is ideal -- to prepare in advance before you see it," said Trudy Hutto, registered nurse and manager of the Queen's Same Day Surgery Center.

Also, it's a way to promote patient safety, said Dr. Della Lin, chief of the Department of Anesthesiology.

By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Stan's medical profile can be changed to reflect the
reactions of men or women, young or old, healthy or ill.

Stan, short for standard man as named by Steadman, is controlled by computer software that allows the instructor to monitor and direct students.

It can simulate different programmed conditions such as heart failure, collapsed lung or an allergic reaction. Its profile can be changed to a man or a women, old or young, healthy or ill.

The mannequin, a product of Florida-based Medical Education Techologies Inc., responds to the medication in the same manner a person would, Hutto said.

Each drug injected into the mannequin is bar coded and scanned through a machine. The machine recognizes the drug and the amount, she said, and simulates cardiovascular, pulmonary and physiological responses.

"We practice repeatedly situations they may not see in real life," said Steadman, an anesthesiologist from the University of California-Los Angeles Medical Center.

People, indeed, experience heart stoppage, or a collapsed lung, or an allergic reaction to medication, he said. "But you can't systematically train people in those events."

"With this, you can guarantee that they have a situation that they need to practice on and be educated on," said Steadman. "If a real event occurs, they would have had some prior experience with that."