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School
of Medicine Receives
$2.3 Million to Fund Simulation Center
By Jeremy Diener
Students at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine
will have an opportunity to hone their medical skills by working
with high-tech, mock patients thanks to a $2.3 million gift from
Russell and Mary Shelden.
The gift will fund the Russell D. and Mary
B. Shelden Clinical Simulation Center where students will learn
to perform complex medical procedures on electronically controlled
mannequins.
“Being an anesthesiologist, I
know how essential this Center and these mannequins are to the
training of people in medical professions,” Russell Shelden
said. “After speaking with the dean, we saw a need for this,
and we're happy we were in a position to support this important
project.”
The Center is now open in a temporary location
in the medical sciences library. It will be permanently housed
in the Clinical Support and Education Building, which is scheduled
for completion in early 2008. The gift will provide operational
funds for the Center and provide three simulation mannequins to
be used in medical instruction.
“It is a major gift both in size
and direction,” said William Crist, dean of the MU
School of Medicine. “It will have a tremendous effect
on all healthcare professionals educated at MU, including students,
faculty, residents, nurses and others. Much like pilots, who log
considerable hours in a simulator to perfect their technique before
taking control of a real plane, our students will have extensive
experience in patient care before performing procedures on live
patients.”
The simulation mannequins represent a new
wave of medical instruction. The advanced technology built into
the mannequins allows students to perform various medical procedures
while receiving real-time feedback in much the same way they would
from a human patient. The mannequins breathe, have a pulse, have
eyes that dilate and can react to various drugs introduced by
medical students. The experience they offer students is invaluable,
medical instructors say.
“Medical simulation is the learning
of medical skills in the laboratory setting, where no patient
outcomes are affected, before using these skills to care for real
patients,” said Karen Calhoun, chair of MU's Department
of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery and chair of the simulation
center steering committee. “Thousands of different scenarios
can be constructed, from anesthesia in the operating room and
codes in the ICUs and emergency departments to first responder
situations.”
Calhoun added that students can practice
multiple scenarios over and over again until they become second
nature. She also said that other non-mannequin simulators in the
Center will allow students to practice complex procedures such
as breast and pelvic exams, to simpler procedures such as starting
an IV.
“This is how you want your doctors to have trained, this
is how you want the anesthesiologist who’ll put you to sleep
to have trained, how you want the internist who listens to your
heart rhythm to have trained, how you want the surgeon performing
your surgery to have trained,” Calhoun said. “This is
the future of medical education, and we are building it right
here at the MU School of Medicine.”
The gift bears the distinction of breaking
the original For All
We Call Mizzou campaign goal of $600 million. Members of the
University family celebrated the success of the campaign and announced
a new goal of $1 billion to be raised by Dec. 31, 2008.
Shelden earned a bachelor of arts degree
in chemistry from MU in 1942, his bachelor of science degree in
medicine in 1947, and his medical degree from Washington
University in St. Louis in 1949. While at MU he
was a member of Phi Delta Theta, Phi Beta Pi, senior ROTC,
Scabbard and Blade, and QEBH, a secret honorary society.
He served as a member of the clinical faculty in the
Department of Anesthesiology
in the School of Medicine for 25 years and rose to the rank
of clinical professor. He and his wife have funded two chairs
in anesthesiology, created the Student Anesthesiology Award Fund
to recognize outstanding students, and were among the first to
create an endowed fund for the benefit of the School. The Sheldens
also are major contributors to MU’s Intercollegiate Athletics
program. They made a gift of $1 million to the Sports Park Gift
Fund and are regular contributors to the Tiger Scholarship Fund.
The couple founded the Shelden Academic Resource Center where
student athletes have access to a comfortable study space and
computers.
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Last Update:
November 15, 2007
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