Regional Anesthesia Simulator for Training of Resident and Staff Pain Management Specialists

ToLTech will design a realistic and adaptive, virtual reality based simulator for practicing regional anesthesia skills on any part of the human body. The simulator will use haptic and graphic display to give the student the experience of feeling and seeing the interaction of each tool, including needles, with the virtual patient. The simulated patients will be derived from the Visible Human and will respond to both nerve stimulation and drug induced blockage in response to the position of the needle tip when either stimulation is applied or anesthesia injected. The simulator will be combined with a Mentor program that will guide and test the development of the student. This training tool can be used and reused in a learner-centered environment and utilized at the user's pace and time. A full curriculum for nearly all regional anesthesia procedures will be provided in the Phase II portion of this grant. Milestone demonstrations of the fidelity of the virtual anatomy and needle will be available during the Phase I portion of the grant. In addition, one full regional anesthesia lesson will be demonstrated by the Mentor program during the phase I.