Audiovisual recreates a virtual hospital environment tailor-made for the special needs of medical training.
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The Horizon Centre at Torbay Hospital is an innovation, education and research facility that provides a state-of-the-art environment where medical staff and trainees can explore new ideas, learn new techniques and reflect on clinical practice together.
The facilities provide eighteen linked interactive teaching spaces with fully integrated multimedia systems for teaching and presentation within a central audiovisual control room, a simulated operating theatre, a simulated ward, a lecture theatre, a briefing room, procedural skills rooms, and tutorial and meeting rooms.
The Centre’s role is to provide an environment where ideas can be explored and exploited sooner. It will help the National Health Service (NHS) safely introduce the latest treatments and service improvements earlier, leading to better treatment outcomes for patients.
The systems installed at the Centre are tailored to the special needs of medical training. The main task of the system is to record the simulation activities in a digital format from multiple camera locations as well as any biometric information derived from high-fidelity mannequins.
Recordings are synchronized to allow common event stamping of the recording media. The recordings can be played back in the debriefing room and other rooms, selected by touch screen operation, and displayed via a video projector or LCD monitor.
The system is capable of displaying multiple simultaneous images (up to four) from each of the recorded camera locations. The instructor can replay the activities using either conventional video control or by selecting an event stamp.
Wireless headsets provide intercom between the control room and the instructors in the training rooms. Ceiling loudspeakers are provided in the rooms for operator’s announcements and audio accompanying video.
On the ground floor there are training rooms that are more conventional. These all have audio-visual connectivity to the main system. The seminar rooms and lecture room are fitted with cameras and video conferencing capabilities. All video conferencing is IP based.
The aim of the Centre was to develop a culture where synergies between innovation, education, research and clinical services can be maximized. It had to cater for a wide range of educational activities from highly complex clinical procedures to the baseline skills required by the NHS workforce. As well as classroom-based learning the Centre needed facilities to support delivery of education through a range of learning technologies, such as e-learning, video conferencing and distance learning.
Electrosonic was involved from the early stages of planning, working with medical technology consultants MedicVision to develop a design for the audiovisual systems. The system allows fully interactive anaesthetist training scenarios to be run, recorded and played back for debriefing.
Users have the ability to monitor, interact with, record and replay training sessions throughout the building, link to outside sites via video conferencing, and master recordings of these events for webcasting and video-on-demand.
Torbay Hospital is well-placed to put into practice new NHS initiatives and develop and implement in-house innovations including new models of care and better ways of working.
The Centre is recognized as providing ‘exceptional medical training’ in the use of simulation and scenario based learning. The unique facilities support the development of individual technical skills, as well as multidisciplinary team-based training and process mapping pathways of care.
