National Center for Collaboration
in
Medical Modeling and Simulation
Founding Partners
 Eastern
Virginia Medical School
Founded in 1973, and located in
Norfolk, Virginia, Eastern Virginia
Medical School has internationally recognized programs in
standardized patient simulation and is a founding partner of the
National Center for Collaboration in Medical Modeling and Simulation (NCCMMS).
The
Theresa A. Thomas
Professional Skills Teaching and Assessment Center of EVMS is an
international leader in its broad use of Standardized (Simulated)
Patients (SPs) and provides its services on a contract basis to a
number of external clients, including other medical schools, health
professions programs, meetings of professional associations and others.
As further evidence of its preeminence
in its field, the Theresa A. Thomas Center in July of 2003 hosted the
first stand-alone conference of the Association of Standardized Patient
Educators (ASPE). As medical education moves toward significantly
increased community-based training and medical students are placed in
primary care preceptorships, the Skills Center helps to ensure
consistency in learning outcomes.
The mission of the Skills Center is to
teach and assess clinical competencies in medical interviewing,
clinical reasoning, ethical dilemmas, communication skills, physical
examination and the application of clinical knowledge. The Skills
Center has SPs ages 16-78, including Physical Teaching Assistants and
Genital Teaching Assistants who receive additional training in using
their bodies in teaching, assessment, and providing feedback on
physical examinations.
Recent related EVMS research includes
improving the utilization of Standardized Patients in medical
education; modeling the effects of Centers for Disease Control category
A through C biological agents/pathogens that could potentially be
utilized as weapons of mass destruction; several programs to model gene
expression in breast cancer and other diseases; the utilization of
simulation in emergency medical services training; the use of
simulation to teach biofeedback approaches to improving circulation in
diabetics; and the use of simulation to assist older patients with
daily tasks such as driving.
In addition, EVMS basic scientists in
the Department of Microbiology and
Molecular Cell Biology have significant experience with developing
models of physiological processes and proteomics.
O. John Semmes, Ph.D., leads
a team of researchers actively engaged in applying state-of-the-art
proteomics to clinical and basic science questions, including proteomic
modeling methodologies utilizing SELDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry to monitor
the immune response to influenza vaccination. These methodologies are
essential for developing more effective vaccines against natural or
bioterrorism-induced influenza infections, and have the potential for
identifying asymptomatic deploying military personnel who are in the
early stages of influenza infection to prevent the spread of the
illness throughout the military unit.
Timothy J. Bos, Ph.D., and his research team are focusing on
modeling the characteristics of the AP-1 oncoprotein with respect to
the structural and functional properties required for transformation,
as well as identification and characterization of specific
AP-1-regulated target genes that may be involved in oncogenesis. These
diverse AP-1 complexes bind and regulate the expression of target genes
involved in many different biological processes including cell growth,
differentiation, apoptosis, and tumorigenesis. The biological
consequences attributed to AP-1 activity are directly related to
specific and directed patterns of gene expression.
Richard R. Drake, Ph.D., and his team have, among other areas,
conducted research on Herpesvirus Thymidine Kinase Gene (HSV-TK)
Therapy. The primary focus of this effort is to model and improve gene
therapy applications of the HSV-TK gene for the treatment of cancers,
especially those of the prostate, colon and breast.
Kenneth D. Somers, Ph.D., and his research team have developed a
model of head and neck cancer in the mouse based on orthotopic
implantation of tumor cells. The model should be useful in mechanistic
studies of tumor invasion and metastasis.
Michael Fabrizio, M.D., EVMS Associate Professor of Urology, and
his colleagues are regional pioneers in Robotic Surgery through
utilizing the da Vinci® Surgical System robot developed by Intuitive
Surgical to perform radical prostatectomy surgery in which the prostate
gland is removed. The da Vinci® robot improves patient outcomes and
provides surgeons with greater precision, eliminating hand tremors,
increasing range of motion, and enhancing visualization during surgery.
The robotic system allows Dr. Fabrizio's hand movements to be
translated into precise movements of micro-instruments within the
operative site by the da Vinci® robot.
Leonard Weireter,
Jr., M.D., EVMS Professor of Surgery, is working closely with
colleagues at EVMS and at Old Dominion University on two medical
modeling and simulation projects. The first is to model how a region
such as Hampton Roads would handle the medical aspects of a Medical
Mass Casualty situation such as may be caused by the use of weapons of
mass destruction by terrorists. The second project involves the
development of a Wound Debridement Simulator that would provide
realistic training experience for medical personnel, both regular
military and reserve, who do not have the opportunity to practice the
wound debridement procedure on a regular basis but may be called upon
to undertake this procedure on the battlefield.
Thomas Hubbard, M.D., J.D., EVMS
Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, is the EVMS team leader on the
Augmented Standardized Patient project being developed in conjunction
with researchers from Old Dominion University. The Augmented
Standardized Patient project will enable individuals who realistically
portray patients (standardized patients) for medical student training
to utilize technology to simulate abnormal physical findings such as
abnormal heart and/or lung sounds, thus expanding the range of
abnormalities that can be portrayed in the teaching process.
 Old
Dominion University
Old
Dominion University (ODU) is located in Norfolk, Virginia and was
originally founded in 1930 as a division of the College of William and
Mary. Today, ODU is one of only 101 public universities designated as
Carnegie/Doctoral Research-Extensive institutions.
Recognizing the significance of the
modeling and simulation enterprise in Hampton Roads (see below) and the
need to provide an academic infrastructure to support this activity,
ODU began to plan and solicit support for research and graduate
programs in modeling and simulation during Spring 1995. The University
was assisted in these efforts by the Virginia Center for Innovative
Technology (CIT), Virginia's Secretary for Commerce and Trade, the
Hampton Roads Economic Development Alliance, and the City of Suffolk.
In October 1996, ODU entered into a
Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the U.S.
Joint Forces Command. This CRADA, coupled with special funding from the
Commonwealth of Virginia, facilitated the establishment of the
Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) on July
1, 1997. This was followed quickly by the development of formal degree
programs in modeling and simulation, a master's degree program in Fall
1998 and a doctoral degree program in Spring 2000 (which recently
produced the world's first Ph.D. in modeling and simulation). Due to
these efforts, ODU has rapidly gained recognition as one of the
dominant academic institutions in the modeling and simulation area.
Today, VMASC is a not-for-profit
collaborative enterprise center of ODU's College of Engineering and
Technology that partners with academia, industry and government to
advance modeling, simulation, and visualization research, development
and education and that seeks to leverage, promote, and cultivate
simulation technology expertise through industry, government and
academia. VMASC's vision is to be a global leader in modeling and
simulation (M&S) research and development and an integrator of M&S with
visualization technologies. VMASC will also be a portal for the
nation's premier M&S educational programs.
VMASC has a proven track record in
advancing and adapting military, government, and industrial modeling
and simulation technologies and is actively extending these to medical
training and to the delivery of medical services through its
involvement with the NCCMMS. In addition, VMASC has previously worked
with local and regional governments as well as with the U.S. Joint
Forces Command to develop and implement simulations that address
training in command and control in response to events (e.g., a
hurricane) that could produce mass casualties.
VMASC/NCCMMS
Faculty
Mark W. Scerbo is a Professor of
Human Factors Psychology at Old Dominion University and Co-Director of
the NCCMMS. He leads a team of researchers and developers who are
working to validate medical simulators, develop new simulation models
and technology, integrate simulation into medical school curricula, and
develop models for regional response to mass casualty events.
James P. Bliss is an Associate
Professor in the Psychology Department at ODU. He is currently
researching alarm mistrust and the effectiveness of alarms in
automobiles and aircraft. He is the recipient of Young Faculty Research
Symposium Minigrant Continuation Award and the UAH Foundation Award for
Research and Creative Achievement.
Lee A. Belfore II is an
Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Old
Dominion University. He has been a Licensed Professional Engineer (VA)
since 2001 and received his Modeling and Simulation Professional
Certification in 2002. Since 1982, he has worked in both industry and
academia in various areas including fault-tolerant computing, automatic
diagnosis, data compression, artificial neural networks, interactive
virtual reality, modeling and simulation. His current research
interests include devising an extensible framework for developing
interactive virtual environments for medical applications.
Frederic D. McKenzie is an
Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Old
Dominion University where he currently serves as Principal Investigator
(PI) and Co-PI on projects involving medical modeling and simulation,
behavior representation in simulations, and simulation architectures.
He has over 10 years of research and development experience in the
software and artificial intelligence fields, including object-oriented
design and knowledge-based systems. Both his M.S. and Ph.D. work have
been in artificial intelligence focusing on knowledge representation
and model-based diagnostic reasoning.
VMASC Research Scientists
John A. Sokolowski has served as
a Senior Research Scientist at VMASC since 2001. His research interests
include human behavior modeling, decision system modeling, multiagent
system simulation, and modeling and simulation for homeland security.
He is a published author and a member of the Society for Modeling and
Simulation International, American Association of Artificial
Intelligence, Association of Computing Machinery, Phi Kappa Phi, and
Phi Beta Kappa.
Jennifer Seevnick has been a
Research Scientist at VMASC since 2001. Her areas of expertise include
virtual and augmented environments, visualization and multimedia
training for medicine, engineering, architecture, science and art.
Research project involvement currently includes project management,
research and development for simulations and multimedia training
materials, technology studies and data visualization. She has been
project manager of the NCCMMS Wound Debridement surgical trainer since
March 2004, and has been lead prototype developer since its inception
in March 2003.
Hector M. Garcia is a research
scientist at ODU/VMASC and helped to set up the VMASC-end EAST Virtual
Environments Laboratory. He has six years experience working on Silicon
Graphics Super Computers and high visualization cluster systems. He is
a team member for the development of a Virtual Environment for training
on an ONR grant project for a check-point scenario simulation using
shared collaborative environments.
Yuzhong Shen is a Senior
Research Scientist at VMASC. His research interests include
visualization and computer graphics, urban terrain database generation,
battlefield modeling and simulation, signal processing, and computing
systems. His work at VMASC includes medical modeling and simulation,
oceanography visualization, and graduate course development.
Students
Elizabeth A Schmidt is a
doctoral student in Human Factors Psychology who has studied skill
acquisition with medical simulators and contextual performance effects
in virtual environments. She is currently applying human factors
methods and techniques to the design of an instructional simulator for
wound debridement.
Hope S. Hanner-Bailey is a
doctoral student in Industrial-Organizational Psychology who has
studied skill acquisition with medical simulators as well as methods
for assessing performance with low fidelity simulators and in virtual
environments. For her dissertation, she is using competency modeling to
describe surgical excellence.
Emre Baydogan is a doctoral
student in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is currently working
on development of simulator prototypes. His research will include
devising a framework that will support multiple virtual reality
platforms methodologies architectures supporting the synthesis of
virtual reality applications.
Saurav Mazumdar is a doctoral
student in Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research will
include determining how to optimally assimilate content from different
virtual reality platforms.
Top |
