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MedSMART
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Cause Description:
Whenever an accident or a serious illness happens to you or your loved one, the first person you see is either a paramedic or a firefighter. In USA, over 70% of these dedicated and brave people are volunteers who selflessly offer their hard work so that the rest of us can surive. In order for us to be safe, our rescuers need continuous, and often very expensive training for which they have to pay themselves. Yat, for many of these men and women access to the most modern medical training technology is virtually impossible, especially when they work in rural or remote areas of the country. The time and the price prevent them from enjoying what their colleagues associated with the most prestigious medical centers receive on a daily basis. Many of you have read that in USA alone, almost 100.000 people die because of medical error. Error whose source is not the lack of devotion or care but inadequate training helping to maintain knowledge and practical skills, training that helps to respon to an emergency with well honed skill and perfection of well-founded knowledge.
Today our airline pilots train in the flight simulators preparing them for any kind of emergency. In medicine, similar devices have been finally developed. Like flight trainers, they are extremely expensive, and available only at the most sophisticated academic medical centers. Healthcare providers see those devices at trade shows, but hardly ever use them in the development and maintenance of their medical skills. In other countries of the world, where medical textbooks may be over 80 years old, the problem of inadequate preparedness is even more serious. In Africa children die because of serious burns, in Asia, a relatively minor injury may lead to catastrophic illness. Even in Europe, the failure to recognize signs of serious illness may result in death of the patient.
Appropriate training conducted under realistic conditions of stress and time constraints is the only way to prevent medical disasters. For those working in rural, remote, or economically disadvantaged regions of this country and the rest of the globe, until now access to such training has been virtually impossible.
The scientists and doctors of MedSMART provided solution to this burning issue. MedSMART is a not- for-profit organization devoted to medical training and education of healthcare providers in rural and remote regions of the USA, Europe and in the Less Developed Countries. MedSMART developed propietary combination of leading edge medical simulation technology and Internet that allows remote training of doctors, nurses, paramedics, firefighter and even lay people in emergency and trauma medicine, lifesaving procedures, and even things as simple as CPR whose may save another person's life.
MedSMART originated at the University of Michigan. Subsequently, in order to provide the badly needed and necessary services for our volunteer paramedics, firefighters, and rural doctors, the scientists and physicians involved in the project left the University and formed their own not-for-profit organization with a global reach.
With the generous support of Laerdal Inc., and Digital realm Inc., MedSMARTcreated the world's most advanced remote training facility based on the pathbreaking concept of computerized Human Patient Simulation, video-conferencing, and telecommunication platforms. The training center allows the "forgotten" healthcare providers to use the same resources as those working at the most prestigious medical training centers such as Harvard or Oxford.
The services of MedSMART are based on the remote access to its extremely costly facilities whose development would be impossible for the majority of our trainees. The training that MedSMART provides is conducted by some of the best specialists in critical care, emergency and trauma medicine, and in prehospital operations (paramedics). The principle of training is based on simulation, where errors can be committed and learned from, where everything is "real". Including stress, time pressures, distractions, faulty equipment, or unforeseen events. The trainees are forced to interact with systems that recreate real life conditions and allow preparing for them. Yet, the trainees may reside thousands of miles away from MedSMART's training center in Ann Arbor, MI., while the training expert may be located elsewhere. In this way, MedSMART trained doctors at sea, nurses and paramedics in remote regions of the globe, and medical students across the Atlantic.
All services of MedSMART are free of any charge to the users. It is our philosophy that those who benefit, benefit the rest of us and it is our duty to provide them with the best of knowledge and skills. It is also in our own interest. We want to KNOW and be CERTAIN that a paramedic who comes to little John who is seriously ill, can not be better prepared than he or she can ever be. We want to know that the doctor in the rural emergency room can deal with a serious heart emergency as well as the doctor at the most advanced medical center in the country. MedSMART can to attain this state. Providing such level of training excellence is costly. The technology that is required and that changes at a very fast pace is very expensive. It also requires maintenance in order to be available all the time. Advanced Internet activities, remote access to our training sites, etc., all require hundreds of thousand of dollars.
In order to fulfill its mission and the goal of providing its services free of charge to anyone who may need them, MedSMART relies on outside funding. Federal agencies and state, international organizations, private foundations. And YOU.
Contrary to many other organizations, all funds that MedSMART acquires are immediately turned into operations, into improving the quality, and availability of our services. We also conduct scientific research aimed at determining the best ways to harness advanced technology into medical education and training. Our goal, the goal of MedSMART is not to get rich but, by giving the best we can offer, make all our lives richer by making them safer, by helping those who help us when we need them most - ine medical emergencies.
Strange as it may sound, we also save animal lives. Each training session that uses our facilities saves lives of several cats, dogs, sheep, goats, and pigs. Until now, all medical procedure training was conducted on animals. There was no other way. Medical simulation opened an alternative approach. The approach that, due to its realism, is far more suited for medical training. The approach that allows "reuse" of the same machine over and over again. The approach thorugh which our concern for animal welfare is reduced to patting our dog or cat, rather than killing it in order to learn.
Please, visit our Web site at
www.med-smart.org
to learn more about us. To see our facilities, to see how we work, and how we train healthcare providers helping them attain the level of medical skills they need but, until arrival of MedSMART, were frequently unable to get due to the expense, distance, or simply - lack of money to pay for the facilities or training. Please, visit our Web site, and see how modern technology changes the way doctors, nurses, and paramedics will train and maintain their knowledge in the near future.
The future is here, but to make it the present, we, MedSMART need YOU and your help.
We thank you for it, and promise your trust will help us make our work even better!
The Staff of MedSMART
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