HAVE already proven their worth as a virtually real way for surgeons and nurses to bone up on procedures. HT Medical's second-round nod follows a 1997 Phase I grant. Current credentialing methods usually emphasize intellectual learning and rarely evaluate hands-on skills, says Monica Giffhorn, HT Medical's corporate communications director. Hospital practitioners intuitively recognize the best among themselves, whether the skill is starting an IV or clearing a clogged heart artery, Giffhorn says. Capturing that person's actions in a computer simulation could create a skills goal for others while providing a way to practice the procedure, without patient risk, until the benchmark is achieved.
Outcomes are the bottom line.
They haven't had a requirement because the technology hasn't existed. Benchmark VR should be available for the CathSim IV insertion system by the end of 1999 and will be developed for the Pre-Op endoscopy and endovascular systems later, Merril says. Enormous, single-vendor government contracts also haven' t hurt. But the US healthcare industry, already equipped with LANs, intranets and extranets, doesn't seem as eager to buy into portable cards, especially if they're little more than identity and insurance policy verifiers. Or perhaps the US needs the same technology in a different way.