NEWS

Simulation Center Expansion Underway

Completion Expected in February 2008

The renovation will expand the Baystate Simulation Center and create three patient simulation rooms including one in the image of an operating room (which may also mimic a PACU, Trauma bay or ICU room), and two patient rooms (which may also mimic Emergency Rooms).

The goals of this renovation are to provide enhancements such as:

• realistic patient care settings

• professionally-lit and well-supplied procedural task training center settings with advanced skills training tools

• increased curriculum development and expansion to provide  additional innovative training for a variety of individual learners and teams in all disciplines

• dedicated educational space for groups of observers (both institutional or from community outreach programs) to gain from simulation based training exercises being held within individual simulation rooms

• dedicated educational space for groups learning procedural tasks, including suturing programs, central venous access training programs (for improvement in procedural skills safety training) and many others

• web-based access to multiple training activities

• expanded teleconferencing capabilities

• state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment for improvement in sophistication of training activities

• a source of consultation and/or training for others wishing to develop their own centers and education programs.

Is Your Clinical Research Eligible for Publication?

The International Committee of Medical journal Editors (ICJME) has mandated that clinical trials must be registered with ClinicalTrials.gov in order to be accepted for publication in those journals. This means that if your clinical protocol is either:

• investigator initiated or

• part of a multi-institutional trial for which you are the principal investigator

you must register your protocol with ClinicalTrials.gov to make sure it is eligible for publication.

An additional benefit of registration is that, as a government database, it is an excellent way to advertise your clinical trials to the public and let others in the research community know what you are doing.

The Protocol Registration Process is Easy – Only 4 Steps

1. Contact Richard Engelman MD, Baystate Health's Database Administrator, to be entered into the ClinicalTrials.gov database as an Investigator.




2. Enter your protocol into the ClinicalTrials.gov database.




3. Have your protocol reviewed and approved by the IRB.




4. Update your protocol twice a year on the ClinicalTrials.gov website.

Detailed registration process is available on the Academic Affairs intranet site.

Kevin Hinchey MD, Director of Internal Medicine Residency Program, Presents Quality Improvement Study at the Association of American Medical Colleges

Project Involved Developing & Analyzing Hands-Off System on Inpatient Units

Dr. Kevin Hinchey reported on this current Department of Medicine research program, which involved both residents and nurses, at the annual Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) meeting in early November.

Hands-off is a common source of introducing problems in patient care. Incorporating Information Systems staff, Medicine residents and more than 20 others in the Medicine department, this project focused on transitioning the traditional paper-based hands-off system to a computer-based tool that is also able to capture data already in CIS. A process was developed to integrate and organize data into an informative tool that is shared by both residents and nurses.

For the past 18 months Dr. Hinchey has been a leading participant in the the National Alliance of Independent Academic Medical Centers' "National Initiative." The Initiative seeks to increase awareness that residents, due to their unique responsibiities, are in a position to influence and advance quality initiatives. Further, NAIAMC wants to capitalize on this opportunity to hardwire quality improvement processes into residency training programs. Efforts like these also fulfill the ACGME competency for training and resident involvement in practice-based learning, and system-based practice and improvement.