Lahey Hospital & Medical Center Opens New Simulation Center to Enhance Clinical Training

Burlington, Mass. – Lahey Hospital & Medical Center (LHMC) today announced the opening of the Samuel and Nancy Jo Altschuler Simulation Center. The new center will enable health care workers at all levels to practice in realistic clinical settings using the latest technology and training methods to learn new techniques, strengthen teamwork, and optimize responses to crises and unanticipated events, without risk to patients.

“This new center provides leading-edge simulation training technology for physicians, nurses, fellows, residents, students, allied health professionals, and others,” said David Longworth, MD, president of LHMC. “In addition to improving the technical, communication, and crisis management skills of our medical staff, the center serves as a tremendous platform for innovation and discovery. We are so grateful to the Altschulers for the generous donation that has made this center possible. Thanks to their support, this simulation center will sustain our future needs, enabling us to be leaders in so many domains of the care we provide.”

The Simulation Center was built on-site at LHMC to integrate its medical education programs with the delivery of team-based care, in one convenient place without the need for users to travel to an offsite location. Unique features within the Simulation Center include operating rooms, and classrooms with special mannequins that simulate real patients, utilization of virtual reality and augmented training tools, as well as procedural skills stations—and organ models. Training on this equipment improves healthcare team function and health care providers’ skills from basic suturing to cardiac and trauma surgery. From trainees to more senior clinicians alike, users of different experience levels can use the center to stay up-to-date in the ever-advancing medical world.

“Most people assume that a clinician’s training ends when they finish their education,” said Dmitry Nepomnayshy, MD, director of the Samuel & Nancy Jo Altschuler Simulation Center & Professional Development at LHMC. “The Simulation Center will play a major role in further enhancing the care we provide and advancing medical knowledge.”

The Simulation Center also offers health care providers with training and credentialing in multiple areas, including Basic Life Support (BLS), Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS), Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) as well as more specialized areas such as Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS), Fundamentals in Endoscopic Surgery (FES) and Fundamentals in the Use of Surgical Energy (FUSE), as well as courses in robotic surgery. Virtual Reality bronchoscopy, endoscopy and robotic bronchoscopy training modules as well as augmented reality tools for thoracentesis, echocardiography, and thoracic disease recognition helps enhance a learner’s experience across many disciplines in the most interactive way. The training is provided by LHMC physicians who are renowned in their field.

“Live, hands-on learning is a very impactful way to train individuals, and when our trainees are exposed to simulation early in their careers, it really shapes what they do, how they do it, and how they train their colleagues junior to them as well,” said Carla Lamb, MD, a physician in LHMC’s Department of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine and Simulation Center instructor. “The opportunity to teach the next generation of clinical leaders allows Simulation Center instructors to pay it forward in a very unique and special way.”

To learn more go to the Center for Professional Development and Simulation, or take a virtual tour of the new center.