Medical Simulation News

We had the opportunity to speak to Healthcare Systems key opinion leader Prof. Dr. med. Marcus Katoh, MBA, Chefarzt - Institut für Diagnostische und Interventionelle Radiologie, Helios Klinikum Krefeld and Helios Klinik Hüls. Prof. Katoh was recently appointed as the new chairman of the board of The German Society for Interventional Radiology (DeGIR) and aims to represent all interventional radiologists and minimally invasive radiologists in the DRG, focusing on advanced training and quality assurance in interventional radiology practice.

As interventional procedures become more complex and time-demanding, there is a greater need for physicians to meet increasing procedural challenges with realistic and immersive training solutions. When physicians are able to improve the standards of their procedural workflow proficiency, they unlock new techniques that exponentially boost confidence for health care professionals and positive outcomes for patients and Health care providers. 

Ultimately, these solutions save time on critical life-saving procedures and cut back dramatically on long-term learning and operating costs, all the while bringing a new gold standard to continuous best practice. In this blog, we dive into the virtual patient simulation experiences of dedicated physician and long-time Mentice user Dr. Kornelia Kreiser, Head of Neuroradiology at University Hospital Ulm, Germany. 

As a major proponent for realistic simulation, Dr. Kreiser has experienced all generations of the VIST Virtual patient, from VIST-C, the first portable endovascular simulator, to VIST G5, and through to the current VIST G7- a fully immersive platform with the most advanced technology on the market. We had the opportunity to ask her a few questions about her experiences over the years, and her take on the future of simulation in moving toward vast educational and cost improvements for healthcare systems globally.

Explore the key takeaways of the blog:

1. The evolution of the VIST solutions:
From Technical Skills and Device Manipulation to a Fully Immersive Platform
How the adoption and evolution of VIST solutions have brought about vast improvements to patient outcomes and hospital costs, with quality training curriculums that optimize healthcare workflows and patient safety.

2. The Benefits of Linking Simulation to the Angiography Suite:
Including the ability to import patient-specific data
Beyond procedural & device learning, learn how the extended platform integration allows for pivotal angiography suite training to further benefit both trainees and experienced interventionalists.

3. How virtual patient simulation combined with a structured curriculum can scale up your INR department  
Delve into the specific INR peer and departmental challenges, how such a capital investment was leveraged, the immediate goal for utilization, and why the choice fell on Mentice solutions.

4. The future of simulation:
Impacting procedural standardization and enabling remote training
Virtual patient simulation as a new consensus - the optimal solution for exposure, independent training, remote learning, and a refresher for interventional teams to optimize, realign and regain their subconscious team dynamics.

Jefferson to introduce Mentice’s virtual patient technology into IR training and virtual reality simulations used by physicians to improve their clinical practice.

Kashif Ikram, MSc. MA. MBA had the opportunity to sit down and discuss simulation. As Head of Corindus Vascular Robotics EMEA at Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Kashif has led robotics in the surgical field for the past seven years. In this blog, he shares his thoughts on training and education as physicians transition into robotic-assisted vascular interventions.

Today, echocardiography is crucial to patient screening and guidance for novel and complex interventional procedures, and this increases the demand for highly skilled operators. However, training opportunities remain limited. There certainly is still no standard certification process for echocardiography, and education continues to be based off an outdated see one, do one, teach one model. How can interventional teams move toward new training techniques that will save both time and costs, as well as improve patient outcomes in echocardiography and echo-guided interventions?

Mentice AB (STO: MNTC), a leading supplier of high-tech solutions for simulation in the medical sector, with a focus on endovascular procedures, today announced the appointment of Pontus Appelqvist as Vice President and General Manager for Asia Pacific. Pontus has more than 20 years of enterprise leadership experience in driving new technologies to market within Asia. In his previous role, his direction led to multiple years of triple-digit growth by adapting innovative Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and interactive solutions for education and training in the region.

Learning on real patients always comes with risk, and limited insight. Cardiologists are constantly seeking to innovate the ways in which they train for clinically complex scenarios within a safe environment. The more complex a procedure, the more simulation has been able to support interventional cardiologists decision making process and ultimately supporting an improved patient experience. 

In a world where pilots are required to train and certify for their own skills, simulation should become a more solidified standard for healthcare professionals as well. Pilots have standard processes in place for avoiding real-life crash landings, yet interventional cardiologists still face a need to better define their own training methods for improved patient outcomes.

Healthcare professionals on a global scale recognize that medical simulation plays a key role in improving cardiovascular training and education. We recently met with Prof Dr. Jens Flensted Lassen of Odense University Hospital and had a critical discussion exploring the future of interventional cardiology. Explore the conversation:

How are Interventional Cardiologists using simulation to improve their training workflow?

Training in Interventional Cardiology has come a long way from the see one, do one, teach one model as more and more cardiologists integrate high-fidelity simulators into their workflows. Simulation has undoubtedly helped IC’s reduce real patient learning and significantly improve patient outcomes over the years. In fact, the EAPCI has recently updated their Core Curriculum (2020), recognizing that simulators are increasingly effective educational tools, and that they should be incorporated into training and early adoption.