Innovative care is one of the pillars of the KansasCOM mission. This is what it looks like in the classroom.

Human interaction is at the heart of osteopathic medicine. Through touch and patient dialogue, doctors of osteopathic medicine diagnose patients and foster communication. Now, though, KansasCOM is employing a range of state-of-the-art technological innovations to maximize medical classroom and lab instruction and prepare students for the vital, interpersonal moments they’ll encounter in real-life practice.

In-Patient Skills Lab

The in-patient skills lab contains six rooms equipped and set up like a hospital room. Small groups of students participate in scenario-based timed simulations here. These simulations offer students opportunities to work on their critical thinking and communication skills. During a simulation, students work as a team to obtain the patient’s history, perform an exam, and interpret vital signs to formulate a differential diagnosis and plan of action.

  • CAE LearningSpace is a healthcare simulation center management solution designed for use a wide range of simulation programs. During simulations, LearningSpace allows faculty to both observe and interact with the students.
  • EHR Go is a simulated electronic health record that allows students to practice with documentation and navigation in a patient’s chart. It is also used to create medication labels and patient wristbands for simulations. It is accessible in the classroom, in the labs, or remotely.
  • iSimulate produces simulated patient monitors to display a range of vital signs.
  • Manikins, which are lifelike model of humans or isolated human body parts, play a vital role in instruction and training, and KansasCOM is adding to its high-fidelity manikin fleet, including two delivery manikins that allow students to gain experience delivering a baby.

Outpatient Skills Lab

This area houses 12 rooms with the size and look of a doctor’s clinic. Within this space, students experience simulated patient encounters. They obtain a history, perform a physical exam, and diagnose ailments that patients present. The videos of these patient visits can be reviewed remotely and asynchronously.

The technology used to teach the outpatient skills lab also includes LearningSpace to generate QR codes that each student uses to check into the simulation center. This allows faculty and staff to track usage of the center.

Students and faculty also use EHR Go for outpatient skills, in this case to allow students to chart their SOAP (subjective, objective, assessment, and plan) notes, which are then submitted into Canvas, KansasCOM’s learning management system.

Procedural Task Training

An important part of training to be a DO is learning clinical and procedural skills, including intubation, IV insertions, lumbar punctures, and foley catheterization placements. To practice these tasks, students use lifelike trainers such as manikin arms, practice insertion IVs, and a life-size auscultation trainer that helps students identify lung and heart sounds.

Ultrasound Curriculum

The longitudinal ultrasound curriculum exposes students to point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS). They develop their POCUS skills through all four years of medical school.

KansasCOM’s high-resolution GE HealthCare ultrasound machine is ideal for faculty demonstrations and instructional videos. Additionally, students have access to 36 Butterfly probes attached to iPads which allow them to practice scanning during faculty-led ultrasound skills labs. The handheld wands are supported by Butterfly Academy, an educational site that monitors student progress and provides feedback on the use of ultrasound. Butterfly Cloud also stores images collected throughout training

3D Medical Printing

Students are encouraged to learn and explore the concepts and practices of 3D printing. Those who are interested in research find no shortage of avenues to explore, including those that examine how this technology will be used in the medical field in the future.

Anatomy Education Sectra Technology and VHD Software

The Sectra equipment is among the most sophisticated that the students and faculty use at KansasCOM. It includes the Visible Human Dissector, which displays 3D anatomy and cross-sectional cuts of the body. Students can virtually dissect, remove, highlight, zoom, and replace structures as many times as they want. Students can access these images on their personal computers for study at home. During anatomy lab, a group of students perform and view dissections simultaneously using a Sectra Table. These tablets are life-size, interactive touch devices that depict the structures and cross-sectional images of a real cadaver.

Complete Anatomy Education

The Complete Anatomy software displays interactive 3D models to all students and can turn 2D images into 3D interactive models. Some instructors incorporate images into their lectures.

Microsoft HoloLens Augmented Reality Software

Using 3D imaging headsets, this software generates holograms that display human anatomy as well as neuroanatomy, a map of the human nervous system that students explore in weekly lab sessions.

DigitalScope for Slide Creation and Viewing

Used widely for histology education, this technology creates high-definition slides using “digital microscopy.” These slides are viewable on the students’ computers and allow navigation to closer views and different angles.

Innovative and Interactive Teaching Modalities

In addition to the extensive use of technology in instruction at KansasCOM, the curriculum also features a variety of simulations and interactive teaching techniques, including a poverty simulation, a stroke simulation, mock code escape room, and Neuro Twister.

In the poverty simulation, students must try to live on a budget below the poverty line and navigate the health care system without insurance.

As part of the stroke simulation, students roleplay scenarios in which a simulated patient mimics behaviors of a patient suffering from a stroke.

In addition to the simulations, instructors use innovative learning games such as Neuro Twister, in which cross-sectional images of the brain are taped to a Twister mat. Students must contort themselves to correctly match the images with their corresponding anatomical names.

Students also participate in a mock escape room, in which they must collaborate in a time-limited scenario and use their Basic Life Support knowledge to crack the codes that will free them.

The range of teaching modalities available to students at KansasCOM helps them approach the study of medicine in new ways and instills a sense of flexibility that will serve them as their careers progress, not only in dealing with patients but also accommodating the continuing advances in technology that are a significant part of the profession.