The SUMMIT Labs are doing some really incredible stuff just down the road. We got to test-drive some of the latest-and-greatest in the medical learning technologies world today.

* I started off at the virtual laproscopic surgery unit, which uses two laproscopic surgical handles to simulate a surgery; on the screen in front of you, you can run a Java applet with full 3D graphics and real-life object dynamics to practice grasping objects, cauterizing, stenting, clamping, clipping–you name it. It’s partially used to help beginners get a feel for the instruments, but it’ll also be useful now that surgical residents are ahem , limited to 80 hours a week. The program has 20+ different scenarios, with varying degrees of difficulty. (Video gamers like myself only have an edge for the first two times on the simulator; after that everyone else’s hand-eye coordination skills catch up, according to the research they’ve done.)

* Next was a well-designed, attractive, and seemingly *useful* Shockwave/Flash clinical physiology website. I’m as tech-friendly as anyone can be, but most of the learning tools I’ve seen haven’t taught me much. In this one, however, you can test different clinical scenarios with patient physicals. You can do a virtual eye exam, and see what a patient with an optical motor neuron problem will look like upon examination, and then test your abilities with virtual patients who present with an unknown condition.

* The Media Server Project and E-Pelvis are two other interesting projects–the former has cataloged images from many medical disciplines and has a searchable index; the latter is a pelvic exam simulator that allow students to practice pelvic exams and give pressure and sensitivity readings back to the student, so he or she can improve technique before he or she does an actual exam on a patient.

* Finally, the Advanced Immunization Management Project allows developing nations’ public health departments to calculate the funding they require for their country’s vaccines. It’s primarily funded by Bill and Melinda , and teaches basic economic principles to health managers. It’s currently only available in English and French, so it’s got a ways to go, but it’s certainly a useful tool (even if it’s pretty dry and chock-full of items like “capital costs” and “operational costs”). The goal is to pass it on to provide it on CD to countries, so that the countries can then determine the funding they require and apply for that funding to GAVI , the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.

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