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Innovations in Basic Sciences Blocks

Simulation

The first-year medical school courses currently incorporate three types of innovative activities within the SimLife Center in Clinically Oriented Anatomy and the Structure and Function of Major Organ Systems physiology course. The most straightforward uses the cardiopulmonary manikins to practice cardiac auscultation and interpretation. The second consists of opportunities for small student groups to perform point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) assessment of each of the major organ systems using standardized patients. A progressive increase in realism and clinical relevance is achieved by introducing small groups of students into full-immersion simulated patient encounters of emergency department scenarios using high-fidelity manikins to demonstrate the compensatory mechanisms evoked in a variety of clinical presentations (e.g., acute pancreatitis, diabetic ketoacidosis or shock). The students practice assessment of patients relying on history and physical examination, ordering relevant laboratory testing and interpreting diagnostic images to refine the potential differential diagnoses to arrive at the correct diagnosis and treatment plan. These activities encourage students to become facile at integrating diagnostic imaging and clinical pathology as part of their assessment in order to reach a definitive diagnosis and contributes to providing our students with a solid foundation in clinical reasoning.

In the Systems Disorders 1 course, students participate in two full-immersion simulations in which they must complete a differential diagnosis and suggest a treatment or next step.  They also practice the identification of various heart murmurs using the cardiopulmonary manikins and practice ultrasonography using manikins and standardized patients. 

MS1 Courses

MS2 Courses

Patients, Physicians & Populations