Surgical training and simulation laboratory at Baystate Medical Center

The work hour restrictions imposed by the surgical residency review committee, without a curriculum change, essentially reduces training programs by 30%. The logical result of this is the risk that a higher percentage of surgeons beginning independent practice will fall below the competence level. We believe that simulation will play a vital role in the curriculum to enhance the clinical environment and make the learning environment better and more efficient. Baystate Medical Center (Springfield, Mass) is an affiliate of Tufts University School of Medicine and provides tertiary medical care for the western portion of the state. Our surgical residency program has developed and maintained a simulation center specifically to augment training of surgical knowledge and manual skills. We are also actively involved in education research and curriculum design locally and on a national level. Our center is rapidly becoming a multidisciplinary environment incorporating other residency and clinical programs within the health system and beyond. We are actively pursuing the development of novel assessment technology that will not only integrate the simulation center with the clinical arena but also link educational and clinical outcomes. This will allow us to automatically tailor the educational environment to the individual needs of the learner as they change over time, as well as look at quality improvement related to our educational and research endeavors.