The Center for Safety, Simulation & Advanced Learning Technologies, CSSALT, provides clinician training and support in developing simulation proposals and studies.
CSSALT also provides education, training and services to residents, faculty, clinical personnel and staff throughout the University of Florida Academic Health Center including the UF Health Healthcare system, to clinicians in the state of Florida, to UF medical, veterinary, dental, engineering and other health profession students, to local and regional emergency personnel and to industry executives and personnel worldwide.
CSSALT builds on the legacy of a continuous and sustained research and development effort in simulation that began in 1985 with the Bain group under the direction of Drs. J.S. Gravenstein and Jan Beneken and remains active today in the development and application of simulation technology.
In 1987, the former dean of UF College of Medicine, Dr. Michael Good, and the director of CSSALT, Dr. Samson Lampotang, developed the first prototype of the Human Patient Simulator (HPS) mannequin. This patient simulator technology is licensed to Medical Education Technologies, Inc. (METI), and used worldwide.
The Virtual Anesthesia Machine (VAM) team, affiliated with CSSALT, offers a portfolio of web-enabled simulations.
Our Mission
To advance patient safety by training clinicians to use existing devices, procedures, and drugs better via simulation and to re-design devices, procedures, and drug delivery.
What is Simulation?
Simulation, from the perspective of the health care field, is learning in safety. Patient safety is a primary concern. Simulated environments and scenarios can be created that enable clinicians and healthcare providers to gain experience and skills before they encounter real patients. Simulation may also accelerate the rate of learning compared with more traditional forms of learning.
Some simulations are web-based and are therefore accessible to anyone with an internet connection. They can be used as a tool for assessment of students for clinical skills and as a development tool as they provide a way in which new procedures, methods, and policies can be evaluated while maintaining patient safety.
Types of Simulation
Mixed Simulations
Mixed simulations combine physical and virtual components. For example, virtual information or graphics may be precisely overlaid over a physical component or interposed between a viewer and the physical component. Examples are a Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and an Augmented Apollo workstation simulation.
Standardized Patients
Standardized patients are human actors who are trained to mimic the symptoms of certain conditions. Trainees interact with the standardized patients via natural language and touch.
Physical Simulations
Physical simulations are tangible physical devices or systems that can be touched and directly manipulated. Examples are mannequin patient simulators such as the Human Patient Simulator and part task trainers such as intubation heads.
Virtual Humans
Virtual humans or virtual patients are avatars that are programmed to represent a patient. Interaction is via natural language and pointing. Virtual humans facilitate the representation of rare patients or pathologies.
Virtual Simulations
Virtual simulations are implemented virtually, usually through a display device. There are many different types of virtual simulations. Virtual simulations can fall into more than one of the categories below.
Transparent Reality Simulations
Transparent reality simulations make the internal, hidden, or invisible structure, processes, or functions of a system explicit, visible, and interactive. A prime example is the Virtual Anesthesia Machine simulation.
Web-Enabled Simulations
Web-enabled simulations are accessed via the web through a web browser and will work on both Windows and Mac personal computers. A set of web-enabled simulations can be accessed at the Virtual Anesthesia Machine simulation portfolio.
Photo Realistic Simulations
Photorealistic simulations use photographic quality images for its graphics instead of iconic representations. An example of an interactive photorealistic simulation is the Opaque “Blackbox” VAM simulation.
Panoramic Simulations
Panoramic simulations “stitch” together a set of photographs of a clinical care area, such as an operating room, to form a 360 degrees background to the simulation. An example is the Simulated Anesthesia Application distributed by Schering Plough.
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