August 18, 2003
Volume I, Number 6

Pittsburgh is home to one of the leading emergency response training centers in the world - The Winter Institute for Simulation Education and Research (WISER)

In post Sept 11th America, where wars and fears of terrorist attacks have brought the need for effective emergency response into sharp focus, a USA Today Newspaper investigation finds that emergency medical systems in most of the nation’s largest cities are fragmented, inconsistent, and slow. Where you live could determine whether you live. Using a benchmark standard referred to as the “Utstein template” (the international gold standard for measuring emergency medicine survival rates) the medical emergency response systems in 38 of the 50 U.S. cities measured were designated as sub standard.

One of the federal mandates within the Homeland Security funding strategies will be to rebuild agencies, train first responder caregivers, and establish standards for emergency medical training from the paramedic through the emergency room surgeon. When examining the training sources available to meet this federal mandate it is evident that Pittsburgh possesses some centers that can play critical roles in the improvement of the emergency response system. One such center that Pittsburgh Gateways Corporation is assisting is the WISER Institute at Pitt/UPMC.

WISER is the largest medical simulation research and training center of its kind in the world. WISER conducts emergency medical training using patient simulator systems (manikins) that are activated via a comprehensive set of software tools developed by the WISER team. In 2003, more than 7,000 trainees (anesthesiologists, surgeons, physicians, critical care and emergency medical personnel, registered nurses, firefighters, police, and EMT technicians) will complete WISER training programs. WISER’s innovative training allows medical and emergency personnel to safely learn and practice medical procedures on a patient manikin in a “super-realistic” emergency room environment before using these same procedures in the field.

The learning systems developed by Dr. John Schaefer III, MD (WISER’s Executive Director) and his team, is a comprehensive system that includes such features as:

• More than 100 airways and vascular emergency medical conditions
• Immediate performance feedback and evaluation
• Web based video recording of a student’s session
• Advanced scheduling and data record systems to track students

We are working with UPMC to develop business plans to support a number of developments at WISER:

1. Their expansion from a 4,000 sq. ft. to an 11,000 sq ft. training and research center in 2003/04. This will enable WISER to accommodate more than three times their current training capacity.
   
2. Their transition from an internal training and research resource for UPMC to a center that can also accommodate external training demands of other hospital systems, military training, and homeland security initiatives.
   
3. Their participation in the “upside” of commercial development of training software and hardware and new technologies in first response emergency care.
   
4. Their position as a world leader in first response emergency training and technology
   development.

There are more than 7.5 million first responders in the U.S. alone not including the 1.2 million military personnel that require continuing education in first response emergency medical training.