Education and certification

Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside. Alexander Pope (1688–1744) An Essay on Criticism, 1711, I.135. Medical simulations attempt to recreate events or scenes in clinical practice that are considered important to know or understand. Such simulations are a representation of reality used with the intent to plan, teach, or even entertain. Simulator refers to all the technologies used to imitate various specific tasks. Medical simulation probably predates recorded history. There is evidence that ancestors to the Siberian Mansai people built scaled leather dolls of women as birthing models [1]. Plastic, rubber, and cloth dolls were and are in common use in labor and delivery units to teach medical students and house staff the cardinal movements of labor, techniques to manage the second stage, and instrumental or breech delivery. Although the first medical simulation might have been related to childbirth, more recent research and high technologic simulations have been in the field of anesthesia. The continued development of simulation technologies and products has stemmed from fields seemingly remote from medicine. Major contributions have been made by the U.S. military, the Hollywood film industry, and the computer gaming industry. Aviation simulation and war games were already an integral part of military training before World War II. Simulators have been credited with reducing aviation accidents and improving performance of fighter pilots [2]. The U.S. Air Force has a simulator realistic enough to exert g-forces on trainees.