Improving Medical Care: The Use of Simulation Technology
Simulations may be employed in medicine to enhance competency and improve care…
This article provides an overview of simulation technologies that involve human performance in complex task settings. Distinctions between simulations and related methodologies are made. The application of different simulation types to medicine is considered.
The medical profession desires to generate the safest patient treatment possible. Nonetheless, medical decision-making is at times faulty, incorrect drugs may be administered or prescribed, doses of medications may be inappropriate, patient education may be insufficient or nonexistent, and more. There are many different approaches to improving patient care. Such efforts are of value, but they are not enough.
One technology that might have a favorable impact on medical treatment is simulation. Can a simulation be useful in medicine? How can it enhance medical care? What kind of simulation would be most useful for such a purpose? In simulations, including medical simulations, we want to duplicate the essential elements of reality, however, we want that reality to be under our control. We want to see how some unit of interest (an object, an animal, a person, even a team of persons, e.g., an emergency room team) behaves in response to the reality we have created.
