THE
VILLAGES — The beeping of a heart monitor fills the room as Dr.
Srinivas Attanti, a cardiologist with Citrus Cardiology in The
Villages, inserts a pacemaker wire into the right ventricle of the
patient’s heart.
Attanti watches his progress on another
monitor, which displays the inside of the patient’s chest, and he can
clearly see the pacemaker wire as he guides it through the heart.
After demonstrating the
correct way to insert the wire, Attanti shows those watching what
happens when too much pressure is applied. The heart monitor starts to
beep faster as the heart becomes stressed, but Attanti doesn’t seem
worried.
The reason he isn’t concerned for his “patient” is
because the procedure isn’t real. Attanti is working with an advanced
medical simulation system that allows people to virtually experience
what a real procedure would be like. Everything — from the display of
the patient’s vital signs to the chest cavity visible on another
screen— is computer-generated, but Attanti said it has the feel of a
real procedure.
“It’s exactly the way it looks in a real patient, and it acts the way it would in a real patient,” he said.
The
Medtronic Therapy and Procedure Training Center Mobile Unit looks like
a big truck on the outside, but inside it looks a lot like an operating
room, right down to the dummies used to simulate bodies under the
sheets. The mobile educational unit travels the country bringing
high-tech training on a variety of cardiovascular procedures to doctors
and students.
A heartfelt event
The
80-foot Medtronic truck was parked at Savannah Center in The Villages
on Thursday and Friday during the Heart to Heart Cardiovascular
Symposium. The event was sponsored by Leesburg Regional Medical Center
and The Villages Regional Hospital, and about 250 people attended.
“Our
goal for hosting this is to improve cardiovascular care in central
Florida,” said Desiree Coleman-Cohrn, president of the Central Florida
Health Alliance Foundation. “This (event) is for the latest
advancements and technologies in cardiovascular care.”
For two
days, doctors, nurses and other medical personnel from all over central
Florida gathered at Savannah Center to listen to lectures by experts in
the field and to get a look at the latest in cardiovascular technology.
Retired
registered nurse Betty Schneider, a Village of Sunset Pointe resident,
said she wanted to attend the symposium because she likes to keep her
knowledge about the medical world up-to-date.
“I want to keep my brain active,” she said.
Schneider
said in addition to a professional interest, she has a heart problem,
and after moving to The Villages from New Jersey, she wanted to gather
information on local doctors and hospitals.
“I think it’s phenomenal,” she said. “All the speakers have been very good.”
For Attanti, chairman of the symposium, the event was a great opportunity for learning.
“We’re
trying to bring national levels of up-to-date knowledge and information
to locals,” he said. “(We have) speakers (from) all over the country to
give up-to-date knowledge in their fields,” he said.
Benefits of training
technology
Many
of the symposium attendees couldn’t resist stepping into the Medtronic
truck to try their hand at performing a cardiovascular procedure on a
virtual patient.
It was the task of Ryan Brennan, the Medtronic
truck manager, and Ed Baluyot, technical field engineer for the
northern Florida district, to show people how to use the mobile
procedure and training center.
“It’s nice because we can bring the educational facilities to the doctors instead of them coming to us,” Brennan said.
The simulation system is used to train people on various cardiovascular procedures, he said.
It
is especially useful for teaching doctors about new procedures and
products they might not be familiar with at no risk to a real patient.
“It’s almost like a flight simulator, but it’s for surgery,” Brennan said. “It’s a great hands on way to learn.”
Baluyot added the virtual system also gives people a good idea of the feel of new products they might be using.
“It adds safety later on (because) it won’t be the first time they handled things,”
he said.
Simulators
are starting to be used more and more as training tools for physicians,
and Brennan said they keep improving the system to make it more
realistic.
“I think it will just get better and better as technology keeps improving,” he said.
And
even though Attanti performs many of the same cardiology procedures in
real life, he seemed to enjoy trying out the virtual version.
“It’s
very real,” he said, adding the simulations were a great tool for
learning. “This is the best way to start training yourself on the new
devices.”
Caroline Klapper is a reporter with the Daily Sun. She
can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 9018, or
caroline.klapper@thevillagesmedia.com.
