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Yale-New Haven Hospital news release
Release date: October 27, 2005
Media contact: Mark D'Antonio, (203) 688-2493

SimBaby: Yale-New Haven Children Hospital's newest arrival

Like most new arrivals at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital, this newborn has nurses, doctors and medical personnel swarming all around it. Weighing in at 16 pounds, this bundle of joy cries, breathes, and otherwise acts as a normal infant except for a belly full of computer hardware. The "infant" is 16-pound SimBaby, Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital's (YNHCH) first interactive infant simulator.

"This is great equipment for training emergency healthcare professionals in the care of seriously ill infants," said Linda Arnold, MD, an attending physician in the pediatric emergency department at Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital, and assistant professor of pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine.

The 28-inch-long SimBaby has the physical characteristics of a 3- to 6-month old infant. Connected to a laptop computer with a touch screen and operated by a Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital emergency room physician, SimBaby recognizes and responds to medical treatments and drugs while simulating human-like motions and sounds.

An anonymous donor provided the $28,000 funding for the high-tech robotic simulator. During emergency exercises, instructors can intervene to determine the outcome of each scenario to create realistic critical situations.

"SimBaby allows us to present challenging scenarios in a realistic manner to our nurses, residents and medical students," said Dr. Arnold, who noted that SimBaby is the newest member of the Yale-New Haven Hospital medical mannequin family, which now range in size from infant to adult.

"We have other mannequins for practicing emergency care but none was as realistic as SimBaby and didn't give the feedback that this one does," Dr. Arnold pointed out. "It's a great tool for evaluating levels of competencies. Because it's so life-like, people take it more seriously."

"SimBaby adds a new dimension to training," said Lisa Truini-Pittman, RN, Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital unit-based educator, pediatric ED. "Breath sounds take a lot of practice. When students first hear them there's a big look of surprise on their faces!"

Reporters: For more information on this release, contact Mark D'Antonio, (203) 688-2493.

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Last revised: October 27, 2005 (mv)

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