Surgeons race to perform a delicate
heart-lung bypass operation but no
lives are at stake: the ‘baby’ seen
here is a medical simulator designed
to allow doctors to rehearse difficult
or complex medical procedures.
The simulator is the result of
a collaboration between Boston
Children’s Hospital’s SIMPeds
(simulated paediatrics) programme
and Emmy Award-winning special
effects company Fractured FX.
The partnership began when
SIMPeds’ director Peter Weinstock
contacted Fractured FX after being
impressed with the realism of their
work on The Knick, a TV series set
in a New York City hospital in the
early 1900s.
The simulator models feature
artificial skin, fat, muscle and brain
tissue that closely resemble the real
thing and bleed and pulsate as if
they’re alive.
“Getting the look and feel right
is very important, particularly to
surgeons,” says Weinstock. “To
make simulations effective, you
want to promote suspension of
disbelief, to create an environment
where everyone believes that they’re
working on a real child. Other
simulators exist but their aesthetics
and anatomy are fairly rudimentary,
which makes it harder to keep
people’s heads in the game.”PHOTO: EYEVINEOperating
theatre
HISTORY