New Critical Care Simulation Center Opens

UC Health and the UC Department of Emergency Medicine debuted the new UC Health Simulation Center this week at an open house for representatives from the university, health system and United States Air Force. 

The 4,000-square-foot facility, located in the UC Health Business Center on Burnet Avenue, will house 12 high-fidelity patient simulators. The simulators will be used to train both United States Air Force teams and UC Health physicians in critical care and transport medicine.

The mannequin simulators are designed to mimic the actions and condition of a critically injured patient, including talking, breathing, blinking, crying, seizing, bleeding and responding to treatment given by the training teams. At the center of the facility is a control room equipped with 24 cameras to view and record the live simulations for later training. 

The Simulation Center is an extension of the C-STARS simulation center in University of Cincinnati Medical Center. C-STARS (Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills) is a joint program between UC Medical Center and the U.S. Air Force offering training for military medical personnel in the areas of trauma and critical care.

In addition, UC Health will use the facility to train physicians, residents, medical students, nursing and medical staff. Future supervised training opportunities will be open to regional fire/EMS departments, UC Health employees and UC students enrolled in health care degree programs.

The UC Health Simulation Center was made possible by a cooperative research and development agreement between the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine and Air Force Expeditionary Medical Skills Institute and UC Health and the UC College of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine.