The staff of NYIT’s Institute for Clinical Competence (from left): Mindy Roher, Anthony Guerne,Tony Errichetti, Patricia Myers-Hill, and Barbara Greene.

Virtual Medicine

At the center of “anywhere, anytime” medicine at NYIT is Tony Errichetti, Ph.D., chief of virtual medicine, director of the Institute for Clinical Competence (ICC), and an expert on health care simulation. Errichetti and his staff operate virtual patient examination rooms and two mannequin-based simulation labs, where students practice inter-professional health care teamwork. At a satellite ICC at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx, N.Y., medical students, residents, and health care teams encounter clinical scenarios similar to those unfolding every hour in doctors’ offices and emergency rooms around the country.

Each one of the ICC’s 14 standardized patient (SP) rooms in Old Westbury is a replica of a doctor’s office. They have diagnostic equipment, osteopathic manipulation tables, sinks, and digital video cameras to film interactions between students and SPs, people trained to simulate acute and chronic patient scenarios.

The pulse of the ICC, however, is found in its three robotic patients. These full-body mannequins, such as one called “Stan,” breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide like any human being.

“People like to focus on the gadgets and the robots, but simulation is a learning strategy, not a technology,” Errichetti says. “The ICC staff and NYCOM’s clinical faculty make the mannequins come alive.”

This fall, NYIT will launch a new Master of Science program in medical and health care simulation, the first of its kind in the United States. It will prepare students to use SPs and mannequins to teach and assess clinical competencies and professional skills at medical and nursing schools, hospitals, and medical licensing boards. Online learning will give students 24/7 access to courses and instructors.

“This is a big area of need right now,” Errichetti says. “We are training people to manage simulation centers and do educational research. The question in simulation learning is, does it help doctors, nurses, and health care workers do their jobs better?”

Errichetti, originally trained as a clinical pyschologist, is intrigued by the potential to assess behavioral traits and human factors. Over the past two decades, he established a health care simulation center at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and helped to develop the SP exams used by the National Board of Medical Examiners and National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners since 2004.

Medical students may look smart on paper, says Errichetti, but whether they are team players and can perform steadily under pressure are traits learned on the job. The ability to determine these qualities beforehand would enable residency programs to select the best medical student candidates. Two years ago, the Department of Surgery at St. Barnabas Hospital started screening residency candidates using simulation exercises.

“The department wanted to select smart candidates with appropriate human factors such as social and emotional intelligence, empathy and compassion, excellent communication, and sound judgment,” Errichetti says. “We designed various simulations that would enable candidates to demonstrate those qualities.”

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