Development of the Orpheus Perfusion Simulator for Use in High-fidelity Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Simulation

Despite its life-sustaining potential, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation
(ECMO) remains a complex treatment modality for which close teamwork is
imperative with a high risk of adverse events leading to significant
morbidity and mortality. The provision of adequate training and
continuing education is key in mitigating these risks. Traditional
training for ECMO has relied predominantly on didactic education and
hands-on water drills. These methods may overemphasize cognitive skills
while underemphasizing technical skills and completely ignoring team and
human factor skills. These water drills are often static, lacking the
time pressure, typical alarms, and a sense of urgency inherent to actual
critical ECMO scenarios. Simulation-based
training provides an opportunity for staff to develop and maintain
technical proficiency in high-risk, infrequent events without fear of
harming patients. In addition, it provides opportunities for
interdisciplinary training and improved communication and teamwork among
team members (1). Although simulation
has become widely accepted for training of practitioners from many
disciplines, there are currently, to our knowledge, no commercially
available dedicated high-fidelity ECMO simulators. Our article describes the modification of the Orpheus Perfusion Simulator and its incorporation into a fully immersive, high-fidelity, point-of-care ECMO simulation model.