Instruction of the next generation of surgeons just became more high-tech with the June opening of the Dr. Wayne and Eileen Ryan Surgical Simulation Suite.
The new facility simulates what happens in a modern operating room and features high-tech mannequins and an audio-visual retrieval system that allows students and teachers to enhance learning by reviewing training sessions.
Patti Carstens, program manager in the clinical skills center, said the room was built to be flexible for future technological advances.
“We’re probably never going to get a donation like this again.”
The suite was made possible by a $1 million gift from Wayne Ryan, Ph.D., and his late wife Eileen. Dr. Ryan, chairman, CEO and founder of Streck Labs, is a former biochemistry and research associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the UNMC College of Medicine.
“There’s only one place I know that even comes close to what they have and that’s Mayo Clinic, but I don’t think theirs is nearly as sophisticated as this one,” Dr. Ryan said.
Modeled after the simulation center at the Mayo Clinic, the surgical suite is the most technologically advanced in the country and will allow UNMC to become a regional training and testing site for medical students. Only one third of all medical schools in the United States have a simulation center.
Through a partnership agreement, the facility also will be used by students and faculty at Creighton University Medical School.
“The field of surgery has changed,” said Chandra Are, M.B.B.S., associate professor, surgical oncology. “We’ve seen more changes in the past 20 years than in the 100 previous years.
“We can now see many procedures and do many before we ever do one on a real patient,” he said.