No matter what continent I am on the most common follow up question to my explanation of my summer plans is, “Why?” Even the workers in Barretos Cancer Hospital are curious to know what we American students came to do in the small city. As Rice360 interns we have four objectives…
- Demonstrate technologies and devices developed by Rice students for feedback from users (doctors, nurses, etc)
- This is where the diabetic toes come in
- Complete projects assigned to us by our mentors in country
- Find and execute a personal project
- Find at least 5 new needs that can be developed into future design projects
As the third set of interns to visit Barretos through Rice University, our focus is mainly on the last point. Bringing more project ideas back to Rice furthers the collaboration between university and hospital, gives students real world problems to solve and provides innovative solutions to an institution serving quality health care to more and more people of Brazil. A “comprehensive needs assessment” is what we have called it. As a focus, it appears to be intangible; however, in only our first week here, we have found about ten and counting.
On the third day we visited the medical school here in Barretos. We were able to see their classrooms, labs, library and were even lucky enough to see a cadaver being dissected (I could be slightly exaggerating on the “lucky enough”). The place I found the most interesting was their large simulation center. The mannequins were of varying realism. Their most intelligent one is shown below (along with a Bioengineering student struggling to hear the doll’s pretend pulse).
This center got me thinking. Our good friend, Merriam-Webster, defines a simulation as …
“: the imitative representation of the functioning of one system or process by means of the functioning of another”
The simulation center gives students opportunities to experience situations they would encounter as future physicians. However, the training of these students is only as good as this imitative system. Student design teams at Rice could develop technologies and modifications to better simulate reality thereby enhancing the education at the medical school.
That same week we found ourselves in the medical school once again. This time we stumbled upon a more concrete shortcoming of simulations. Mimicking blood draw with mannequins proved difficult as the plastic skin did not fare well with recurring needle pokes, and replacing the plastic each time was expensive. The solution? Find a more poke-resistant plastic, slip a tube with fake blood through it and even include two syringes to get a pressurized system (I added a picture of this contraption below). Pretty cool but with tons of room to get creative.
Curiously, the simulations do not stop here. Because our diabetic foot model is within this education category, we have had many enthusiastic conversations about other models from which patients could benefit. After seeing our foot, our friend, Naitielli, a nurse in clinical research in the prevention department, was interested in a model for cervical cancer. Many patients do not have yearly pap smears done as few can visualize the progression of diseases like HPV to comprehend the necessity of preventative measures. When meeting with the doctors at the Amublatorio Medico de Especialidades (AME, a secondary level hospital with mainly specialty doctors), we discussed the potential of a diabetic retinopathy model. The doctors explained that many diabetic patients do not take the management of their disease seriously. Many simplify diabetes as “açúcar no sangue” (sugar in the blood) not aware of its dangerous ramifications. Quality simulation can convey medical conditions in an easy and relatable way.
After my many encounters with the desire to simulate here , I can see why it is so important to the people of the Barretos health system. From what I have seen, the institution has attained the technologies needed to provide quality care. One of its focuses is now to not only provide but disseminate that care. In order to spread their reach the hospital needs well-trained professionals and a population that understands, seeks and sustains treatment. We are here to understand the most effective way of doing that.