By Dan McCue
Staff Writer

The patient simulation center that opened in Greenville on March 14 not only put South Carolina on the leading edge of medical education in the country, it also holds the promise of spawning new business opportunities, according to the vice president of medical affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Dr. Jerry Reves, who also holds the title of Dean of the College of Medicine at the university, said that, even as plans get underway to open more simulation centers across the state, Dr. John J. Schaefer III, the endowed chair creating them, is already talking to local businessman Haywood Coleman about ways to leverage the intellectual property on which they are based.

“Honestly, I can envision a time, perhaps years, maybe decades into the future, when the research and learning that goes on at these centers will inspire hospitals across the nation to require credentials based on specific competencies proven in a simulated environment,” Reves said.

“By that time there’s no question there will be tremendous opportunities for businesses to support these programs.”

Coleman declined to comment on his discussions with Schaefer, but said Reves’ description of their collaboration was accurate.

“I’d love to talk about it, but right now we’re at a point where I’ve just gotten into it,” Coleman said. “We’ll have a lot more to report further down the road.”

In the traditional medical training environment, students and teachers adhere to the time-honored practice of “See one, do one, teach one,” Reves said.

“You see a procedure once, take a written test on it perhaps a month later, and then you’re expected to remember how to do it thereafter.”

The central thesis underlying Schaefer’s work is that no one—not the patient, not the hospital and not the practitioner himself—wants to see whether he can perform a procedure in a real-life emergency situation.

“The analogy is the airline industry, where the Federal Aviation Administration requires pilots to go through intensive simulation training and prove their proficiencies every six months or so,” Reves said.

“The idea is that they’ll be assured to be able to handle potential problems they hopefully never will encounter, but someday might,” he said. “In a simulated environment, you can develop knowledge and skills and if you make a mistake, no one suffers.

“I can’t help but be excited about this program. I truly believe it’s the dawning of a new educational paradigm.”

One of the key things Schaefer has already proven in his original research at the University of Pennsylvania is that students retain their knowledge of procedures learned in simulation far better and far longer than they do from work in a traditional classroom.

“The truth is, we teach a lot of stuff, but the fact that we have students with high IQs who can write a procedure down on paper and remember it a few weeks later on a test doesn’t mean they’ll remember it in three months’ time,” Reves said.

“Schaefer’s published work suggests that through simulation, the skills you need to save a life stick with the student much, much longer.”

Dan McCue is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dmccue@charlestonbusiness.com.

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