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High-Fidelity Perfusion Simulation

Clinical Perfusion
A.C. Silverman Hall
Rm. 1119
788 Irving Avenue
Syracuse, NY 13210
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Phone: 315 464-6933
Name: Bruce Searles, Program Chair

Teaching, studying and improving perfusion skills

The Perfusion Department at SUNY Upstate Medical University is pioneering the use of high fidelity simulation for perfusionist training. Founded more than 35 years ago SUNY is one of the oldest perfusion training programs in the nation and continues to develop and teach innovative tools for training and evaluating clinical perfusionists.

Their new high-fidelity simulation center includes the Orpheus Patient simulator and a variety of modern perfusion equipment in a fully instrumented operating room. The dedicated simulation space includes an operating room, pump room control room and multiple debriefing rooms. Participants activities and patient data are digitally captured with audio-visual recording, annotating and playback capabilities.

"Perfusion may be the perfect field for high fidelity simulation. The haptics and fidelity of the simulation is incredibly real." said Bruce Searles, Associate Professor and Department Chair. "Every piece of equipment the student touches is real clinical equipment. There is no need to pretend with regard to how the perfusionist interacts with the equipment. Based on that we can simulate a surgical procedure that challenges the perfusionist exactly the way a real case does in the operating room." Both Mr. Searles and Faculty member Edward Darling, Associate Professor and Clinical Coordinator, have developed standardized patient simulations and detailed metrics for teaching and evaluating critical perfusion decision pathways and clinical skills.

The Students in the SUNY perfusion school train under these faculty members nearly every day. The tools and techniques developed over hundreds of hours of training are also available in specific courses for perfusionists and other health professionals. Anyone wishing to learn more about clinical perfusion can benefit from the Simulation Courses.

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