The model for training surgeons once was, "See one. Do one. Teach one."

Trouble is, seeing one surgical procedure doesn't mean you've seen all the ways that operation can turn out. Better to see as many as possible and practice a lot before touching a real live patient.

That's where the University of South Florida Health Simulation Center at Tampa General Hospital comes in.

The new $1.5 million center is the first of its kind in the Southeast, say USF administrators. It features more than a half-dozen high-tech simulators that allow medical residents — young doctors completing their training — and physicians to practice techniques, critical thinking and decisionmaking skills.

"I wish I had had this when I was a resident," radiologist James Lefler said Wednesday as he worked with a resident inserting a catheter into the artery of a virtual patient named Simantha.

One screen over Simantha showed the placement and movement of the probe. Another displayed heart rate, blood pressure and other vital signs.

Simantha can be programmed to react to the administration of different drugs in various doses. It also can mimic what happens when, for instance, a doctor is placing a stent to prop open a clogged blood vessel and the patient has a stroke.

In contrast, during Lefler's own residency, he used to go to the radiology lab in the middle of the night and use a human skull to practice placing a patient's head in just the right position for an X-ray. The downside was, the practice exposed Lefler to radiation.

Across the hall, a hysteroscopy simulator lets gynecologists practice procedures such as cutting fibroid tumors from the uterus. Currently, a common way to teach that is to use a pig's bladder with a piece of tissue sewn into it, said Dr. Larry Glazerman, USF's director of minimally invasive gynecologic surgery.

"It's a much, much better teaching tool," he said.

The hysteroscopy simulator at USF's center is the first installed in North America and only the second in the world, said Stefan Tuchschmid, the chief executive of VirtaMed in Zurich, Switzerland, the manufacturer. It costs $70,000 to $100,000.

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