“Our involvement with this is a first for the College, and we’re very excited about it,” said David R. Holmes, Jr., MD, a member of the Annual Scientific Session Program Committee and chair of the session.

The presentation was part of SimTech ’02, a new educational opportunity that gave attendees a firsthand view into this rapidly emerging world of training through medical simulation technology.

Dr. Holmes noted that the College’s Committee on Procedures Training has been at work for several years studying this new technology and its applications.

“In the past, procedures training has been based on the principle of ‘see one, do one, teach one,’” which has its limitations, he said. “It’s clearly no longer optimal knowledge, either from the College’s standpoint or from the standpoint of our patients, who deserve safe, quality care.”

Clearly, he said, the better way is development and use of medical procedures simulators that would allow students, residents, interns, physicians, and surgeons to practice and learn procedures—both new procedures and new applications of old procedures—in an environment that poses no risk to patents. The College’s Foundation for Advanced Medical Education (FAME) initiative is in development, according to Dr. Holmes, and will use simulation to train physicians to perform renal and iliac interventions.

ACC ’02 Program Committee Chair Eric S. Williams, MD, noted that this new initiative is important in that medical simulation procedures training technology is developing rapidly and promises to revolutionize the training experience.

John Messenger, MD, an interventional cardiologist at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, listed some of the limitations of current training methods in interventional cardiology, including—-

• Its time-intensive apprenticeship approach

• Its lack of standardized training within and across programs

• The increasing number and complexity of new procedures and devices

“The most important disadvantage of the current system is that practice now occurs on patients,” Dr. Messenger said, “and many life-threatening events and complications often are not encountered during training.”

New simulation technology will permit standardized training in interventional cardiology and allow trainees to practice with no potential harm to the patient.

“The goals for the near future must be to develop simulators that cover the spectrum of interventional procedures and provide for multicenter studies assessing their use,” Dr. Messenger said.

“How much this new technology will be used will depends on how good it is,” said ACC Past President Spencer B. King, III, MD, who concluded the panel presentation. “Right now, it’s looking very good.”

A second panel presentation on “Procedures Training Applications in Interventional Electrophysiology: Present and Future,” will be held from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. today in the ACC Central Theater. Hands-on procedures training sessions are being offered in the SimTech ’02 booth (#5143), adjacent to ACC Central in the exhibit hall. Three vendors are offering demonstrations of their simulators today through Tuesday. Attendees may sign up for complimentary 30-minute training sessions. Tickets for these sessions are available on a limited basis during Exposition hours. To sign up, visit the SimTech ’02 registration desk in the morning. Tickets will be distributed while supplies last.