Surgical Chloe is used in teaching facilities around the world —
she got her start at ETSU
QCOM Human Patient Simulation Lab
The world's first full-body, high-fidelity surgical simulator embarked for medical teaching facilities around the globe, and the patented core technologies within this lifelike manikin, were developed and created here at ETSU.
Officially known as Surgical Chloe, the surgical simulator is an anatomical facsimile of a human woman, developed to train medical residents, students and physicians in obstetrics and gynecological procedures. Surgical Chloe is lifelike in the sense that she not only resembles an adult female in outward appearance, but also internally, with a simulated circulatory system, lung sounds, heart sounds, a trachea and different uterine and abdominal wall inserts that can be interchanged to teach a range of medical procedures.
Surgical Chloe came about through extraordinary measures of innovative thinking and collaboration among university faculty members from ETSU Quillen College of Medicine and the ETSU College of Business and Technology. Gaumard Scientific purchased the rights from ETSU to mass produce the prototype, which is now found in teaching facilities around the world.
Dr. Martin Olsen, interim chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, developed the idea as he pondered a better method to train residents in OB/GYN operative procedures. Dr. Paul Sims and Bill Hemphill, two faculty members in the College of Business and Technology's Department of Engineering Technology, Surveying and Digital Media, brought creativity and expertise to the project, which was instrumental in turning Dr. Olsen's concepts into practical reality.
There is a long history of surgical simulators that goes back hundreds of years as a means of training in obstetrics, but even modern versions before Chloe were low-fidelity and virtual reality mechanisms.
Surgical Chloe simulates a patient down to minute details. After lifting the abdominal wall of the prototype, Olsen pointed out a ruptured ectopic pregnancy that had been removed by an OB/GYN resident. Vessels have been sutured, and if those cuts aren't ligated properly, she will "bleed" internally. Hysterectomies can be performed on the surgical simulator. Training in many other procedures, such as removal of endometrioma or a dermoid cyst, are possible as well.