In medical education, simulator-based education is gain- ing widespread acceptance as a teaching tool within the field

In medical education, simulator-based education is gaining widespread acceptance as a teaching tool within the field of anesthesiology (1,2). The particular advantage of medical simulations is the fact that no harm can come to patients (3). Simulation training is particularly useful for learning to manage rare or infrequent events (4). To learn to manage various events, trainees have to understand basic skill. Recent years have seen the widespread introduction of simulation training involving extracorporeal circulation (5–7). Perfusionists need to be well-trained in both standard and emergency procedures, as complications during extracorporeal circulation can be potentially fatal (8). It is therefore beneficial to establish an appropriate and official perfusion-specific education curriculum and training syllabus (9), and although many institutions recognize this, few carry out such training programs. This is in part because the educational program must adhere to the structure of the education system already in place, which differs between countries and partially as a function of culture (10). Regard less of this, simulator-based education has become common in medical education and there is speculation that the use of simulators will continue to spread in extracorporeal circulation training (3). Given this, and in the light of increasing sophistication of medical simulators (11), the establishments of validated evaluation methods are likely to be a valuable addition to the educational program of perfusionists. Ideally, parallel to advances in development of extracorporeal circulation simulator systems should be protocols for education and skill evaluation. The goal of this study was to explore whether a simulator system could facilitate extracorporeal circulation programs within a teaching environment. We first developed the Abstract: Although serious accidents during extracorporeal circulation are infrequent, potential adverse events with both equipment and operation do still occur and require immediate and well-coordinated responses. Hence, perfusionists need to be well trained in both standard and emergency procedures, and this would be aided by the establishment of an official education and training curriculum. In particular, the establishment of a simulator-based educational program and corresponding evaluation methods will spur development of increasingly medical simulators. ExtraCorporeal Circulation SIMulator (ECCSIM-Lite) was used during repeated sessions of undergraduate students ( n = 12) using a simple training scenario. Trainees aimed to maintain reservoir volume around a constant mean, and increase or decrease the arterial flow avoiding rapid variations, and their performance was monitored. Ability to prevent backflow was also recorded as a measure of accomplishment. Skills in performances were evaluated by using a scoring system based on task accomplishment. Accomplishment score was improved in all participants after 1 week of training. Accomplishment scores reflecting ability to maintain flow improved to an average of 78%; in the third and final practice session backflow was prevented in 100% of cases. The average reservoir level maintenance score in the flow-up phase was 75%, in the flowmaintenance phase was 92%, and in the flow-down phase was 58%. During skill training, in which trainees learn methods of avoiding adverse events, the use of simulators combined with tractable skills scores can ease the transition from training session to clinical practice. Use of these training scenarios within a perfusion education system also has the advantage of providing an index of trainees’ current proficiency and improvement by providing tractable skill scores. In conclusion, the use of ECCSIM-Lite simulations, together with evaluation of task accomplishment over repeated training sessions, is an effective method of basic skill training for perfusionists.