METI brings simulation to Chinese medicine

When METI made the step of introducing its patient simulators to the medical community in mainland China, the timing could not have been better.

On July 29, METI President and CEO Lou Oberndorf was invited to address a gathering in Shanghai of leaders from major medical centers and universities across China. In the wake of the epidemic of Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and in anticipation of the 2008 summer Olympics to be held in Beijing, they were especially alert to the vital role that METI’s Emergency Care Simulator – ECS™ can play in helping to modernize the nation’s emergency management system.

“We expect that within a very short period, perhaps 12 months, we will have a number of Human Patient Simulators – HPS™ and ECS’s in major medical centers in China,” Oberndorf predicted. “Our goal is to have simulators in all of the four major cities by then. While I was there, I was able to meet with national leaders of China’s emergency medicine movement. Our discussions were aimed at the 2008 Olympics as a milestone date. To that end, we’ll be partnering with them in a collaborative and advisory capacity, to put them in touch with some of the emergency medicine leaders in the U.S. – essentially bringing the METI family of users to mainland China.”

Karen Sun of Lu Sun Wyatt China Co. Ltd., METI’s marketing partner in China, explained that currently, medical students in that country go straight from their classes to clinics and hospital wards, where they work “hands-on” with patients.

“With the introduction of modern simulation technology, we hope we can end this inhumane teaching as soon as possible,” she said. “We are working very closely with the Chinese Doctors' Association, as well as Chinese Association for Disaster Prevention. After SARS, the central government of China is committed to build up world-class standards for EMS. We are actively looking into introducing the training programs as well as degree courses that are used in western countries. With METI recognized as the world leader in simulation, we expect that the ECS will be widely used for this training.”