EXPERIENCE WITH PATIENT SIMULATORS IN ANESTHESIA

The new patient simulators have been in use in anesthesia for more than 15 years, and considerable collective experience with the devices has already been achieved. This section and those that follow cover the use of simulators for education, training, evaluation, and research (the last especially in decision making and human factors). The results of simulator studies as regards human performance and patient safety are discussed primarily in Chapter 83 .

Figure 84-8 The SimMan (Laerdal) control monitor (instructor/operator station). On the upper left side is the main control window. Because the SimMan's control logic is script based, there are "sliders" and "buttons" for each parameter (e.g., SpO₂ , blood pressure, heart rate). The schematic figure of the airway system shows where the airway may be blocked or swollen. The right window shows the programmable trends of the vital data. The lower left window shows the script program for the design of more complex scenarios (in the form of "if"/"then" trees).