Minister van der Hoeven opens MedSim

On Thursday 10 December 2009, Minister of Economic Affairs Maria van der Hoeven, Mayor of Eindhoven Rob van Gijzel and Member of the Provincial Executive for Noord-Brabant Lily Jacobs assisted during a virtual Caesarean delivery. As part of the official opening of the ‘MedSim Multidisciplinary Simulation Centre' initiated by European Design Centre, they carried out this simulated drill on a patient in an advanced stage of pregnancy who had just been in a serious car accident. The medical team was directed by Prof. Guid Oei, MD, gynaecologist and Medical Director of the new centre. MedSim is an initiative of the European Design Centre (EDC), the Máxima Medical Centre and Schouten & Nelissen. The new enterprise originated from the R&D ‘High MedSim Centre’ project, financed in part by the Pieken in de Delta programme. As part of this, an innovative patient simulator was developed in conjunction with the Technical University of Eindhoven, which reacts to treatment administered by the doctor or nurse with noise and movement.

In order to be able to properly imitate different life-threatening medical scenarios, innovative technologies such as augmented reality, mechatronics, 3D tracking and sensor technology are used. In the coming years, EDC and its partners will continue to work on perfecting the simulator. As well as this, it is the ambition of MedSim to start up similar training centres in other countries. A hospital in India has since shown interest, and in China the first MedSim training courses have since been completed.