The Advanced Modular Manikin Open Source Platform for Healthcare Simulation

Area of Science:

• Medical Simulation
• Healthcare Education Technology
• Open-Source Development

Background:

• Healthcare education emphasizes holistic patient management, integrating technical skills, decision-making, and teamwork.
• Decreased opportunities for hands-on patient training and an increased number of required interventions necessitate advanced simulation tools.
• Existing training simulators have not kept pace with evolving requirements, creating a gap in healthcare simulation technology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the Advanced Modular Manikin (AMM) platform, developed to address the limitations of current healthcare simulation training devices.
• To detail the collaborative process and technical specifications involved in creating a novel simulation platform.
• To establish a foundation for future development and implementation of advanced simulation modules.

Main Methods:

• An interdisciplinary team collaborated to define requirements and develop a system architecture for healthcare simulation.
• A demonstration modular manikin was created, incorporating physical and digital components to instantiate the architecture.
• A reference manikin was built to specifications and utilized in a usability study.

Main Results:

• The system architecture and data models are complete and publicly available as open-source.
• A developer's toolkit, including instructional materials and necessary software/hardware, has been created for module development.
• A usability study, conducted by the American College of Surgeons, validated the reference manikin's functionality.

Conclusions:

• A functional, modular, interoperable, and open-source healthcare simulation platform has been formally released.
• Future efforts will focus on maintaining open standards and verifying AMM-compatible module development.
• Widespread adoption and module development for the AMM platform could revolutionize simulation-based training in healthcare.