SUNY at Buffalo Simulation Program

In 2006, SUNY at Buffalo's emergency medicine residency program began utilizing simulation during residency training. Our emergency medicine senior residents particpate in an emergency medicine trauma simulation lab each year, introducing them to a unique simulated team training experience. The SUNY at Buffalo emergency medicine residency faculty involved in the project are David Ellis, MD, Jennifer Brown, MD, and Jeffrey Myers, DO.

Simulation training allows the resident to gain "real-world" experience with critical decision-making in a controlled, time-sensitive environment that includes feedback. While managing multiple clinical cases using a simulation mannequin, the resident will gain a better understanding of the outcome of their decisions so that when faced with a similar experience in real-life at a later time, they are able to quickly refer back to the objectives learned during their simulation exercise, providing enhanced care and quicker response to situations seen in the emergency department.

The simulation lab allowed residents the opportunity to direct two different simulated trauma res uscitation case scenarios using a human patient simulator in one of our trauma rooms at the Erie County Medical Center.  Each resident directed the team management of one case alone and the other with the assistance of a cognitive participant, or virtual teaching attending, via the telemedicine system. Cases were then reviewed by each resident and two emergency medicine attending physicians that did not act as a cognitive participant during the scenarios.

Emergency medicine residents will benefit from participating in this trauma simulation lab exercise by practic ing ATLS skills to provide patient care to a major trauma patient in a safe, simulated environment, and by having an opportunity to practice team leadership skills in the patient care setting. 

This educational experience also gives the resident the opportunity to review a video recording of their individual cases after completion and critique their own performance as part of a 360 degree self-evaluation.

Currently we have two physicians within our program, David Pierce, MD and Jeffrey Myers, DO, heading up a medical simulation / education initiative for development of a multidisciplinary simulation center, which would provide a variety of training scenarios and simulation educational opportunities for all specialties at the SUNY at Buffalo Medical School.