Development of a Bariatric Mannequin System to Enable Realistic Examination Simulations of Obese Patients

Project Summary/Abstract The proposed project focuses on creating a bariatric mannequin simulator to educate healthcare students on proper techniques specific and specialized to bariatric patient care. Significance: Obesity is one of the world’s most significant and growing health problems. More than 2 in 3 adults are overweight or have obesity and obese patients have a greater likelihood of requiring clinical intervention than those who are not overweight. As such, healthcare professionals must be prepared to care for bariatric patients. Unfortunately, only a few bariatric mannequins are available in the market today and those that do exist are used primarily for patient transfer training. Our proposed work is significant and innovative because it addresses the lack of appropriately proportioned, realistic, and respectful products to train health care providers in proper techniques for bariatric patient care and does so in an engaging, hands-on manner. Hypothesis: We hypothesize that creation of a realistic bariatric mannequin system will support enhanced learning interactions and increase knowledge transfer for clinical education in addressing the care of obese and overweight patients. In the Phase I effort a prototype system was successfully developed and analyzed. The pilot results of the technology demonstrated a high degree of positivity, exceptional enthusiasm, and all Phase I metrics of success were met or exceeded. Specific Aims: In Phase II the following aims are proposed: 1) Develop a complete, production-ready system, 2) Design a comprehensive suite of course and simulation curricula for use with the system 3) Validate the system utility through human subject testing and expert evaluation of the system.