Anesthesiologists take the lead in German medical schools

Sarasota, FL (October 2003) - As part of a massive curriculum revision in Germany’s system of medical education, a powerful organization of anesthesiologists has purchased 30 Emergency Care Simulators from METI, with an option for 10 more.

The ECS enhancement will help some 40 medical schools and academic anesthesia departments make the move to problem-based learning, according to Marco Grit, who is coordinating the program through METI’s European office in the Netherlands.

The German Society of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Anästhesiologie und lntensivmedizin, or DGAI) was founded in 1953, with the role “of uniting the efforts of German physicians in creating and developing the fields of anesthesiology, intensive care, emergency medicine and pain therapy, and to provide the highest possible standard of care for the population in these fields.” As the scientific society of anesthesiology in Germany, with more than 10,000 members, the DGAI is responsible for research and training.

“Anesthesia departments are trying to play a larger role in the med school curriculum,” Grit explained, “and the ECS will help them to achieve that. The goal is to have an ECS in pretty much every academic anesthesia program in Germany, so that every medical school will have one.”

The DGAI and METI are working together to introduce the ECS, with training, troubleshooting and spare parts available from METI’s European Customer Support Center.

“The DGAI is putting together a specific curriculum for patient simulation
education using the ECS,” said Grit. “In addition, METI has put together a tailored installation and training program, with a German anesthesiologist as the local program manager. We have put together a program for a total of two days of training per individual site, plus two central training sessions for advanced application training.”

METI President and CEO Lou Oberndorf called the DGAI’s resolve to help overhaul the country’s curriculum through this major investment in simulation “stunning.”

“They have done an extraordinary thing in getting deeply involved,” he said. “When they stepped forward to purchase the simulators, they declared that they were taking a national role in medical school education.”