Chulalongkorn Healthcare Advanced Multi-Profession Simulation Center Receives World-standard Certification

Chulalongkorn Healthcare Advanced Multi-Profession Simulation Center (CHAMPS Center) is the country’s first medical training center to receive world-standard accreditation like other world’s leading medical schools.  It is poised to help medical students and healthcare professionals hone their skills and increase their confidence in patient care.

Theoretical and practical learning using cadavers respectfully known as “Professors” may give medical students knowledge and understanding of medicine, but the hands-on experience with real patients is also crucial to increase expertise and confidence in patient care. As a result, CHAMPS Center was established to best prepare medical students for real-life situations.

“This Center will help medical students and health professionals to gain their practical skills by way of simulation of medical procedures, patient situations, practical training with mannequins, equipment, and a multidisciplinary medical team to create a body of diverse knowledge that meets professional standards,” Assistant Professor Suchai Suteparuk, M.D., Chairman of the Clinical Skills and Simulation Center (CSSC), Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University explained.

CHAMPS Center to build expertise for the real world

Asst. Prof. Dr. Suchai elaborated that, in their first years, medical students receive classroom instructions on theoretical knowledge, like neurological systems, cardiovascular systems, parasitology, pharmacology, and so on.  They also study anatomy using “the Professor”.  In their fourth year, medical students will have a clinical practice that allows them to take care of real patients in various hospitals before graduation.

“Studying the cadavers has its limitations. Medical students cannot practice auscultation with them.  Neither can they practice diagnosis with touch, or asking patients history,” said Asst. Prof. Dr. Suchai, added that the lack of opportunities to practice skills on real subjects can cause the students to have less confidence in their diagnoses and treatment.  That changed after the CSSC came along.

“The Center helps train medical students in pathology by taking down volunteer patients’ history under various simulated scenarios, touch, auscultation, sutures on the mannequins, childbirth by Advanced childbirth simulator, venipuncture on adults and children and perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation.  They can also study the 3D human body system on the Anatomage Table, and so on,” explained Asst. Prof. Dr. Suchai.

“Medical students and medical professionals trained at the virtual medical skills training center will develop new skills and techniques in patient care, with increased confidence in treating various critically ill patients as part of a multi-professional team.  The simulated training which consists of physicians, nurses, and patients is always videotaped, so students can re-watch the sessions to further improve themselves and their team.”

However, Asst. Prof. Dr. Suchai said that the virtual medical classroom has some limitations in the sense that simulation of calamity and trauma such as a collapsing building is not possible.

Two CHAMPS Centers

There are currently two simulation centers:   The Clinical Skills and Simulation Center (CSSC) and the Simulation and CPR Training Center (SCTC).

CSSC, located on the 11th floor of Bhumisiri Mangkhalanusorn Building, Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, is a spacious clinical skills training center that allows medical students to study three subjects simultaneously at a capacity of 150 students.

“The center is fully equipped with classroom tools and modern technology, such as an Anatomage virtual operating table, and 3D teaching via Virtual Reality (VR),” Asst. Prof. Dr. Suchai said.

“In addition, the Center also has various mannequins for medical procedures practice that have adjustable ailments function to suit the training needs, such as advanced childbirth, advanced children CPR, respiratory and pulmonary diseases, gynecological exams, wrist injection, as well as training of general skills like venipuncture, intravenous infusion, CPR, or complicated procedures like eye surgery, etc.” 

Simulation and CPR Training Center (SCTC), located on the 16th floor of Sirindhorn Building, Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, the Thai Red Cross Society, is a training center open to nurses, nursing assistants, residents, and other medical personnel to come to practice various skills through virtual simulations. This is a standardized training approach in leading medical institutions around the world. It bridges the gap between theory and practical skills in patient care and unfamiliar situations.

After only one year since the Center was fully established, it received Official Accreditation (Provisional) from SSH — Society for Simulation in Healthcare, the USA in 2020.  This certifies that CHAMPS Center operates at the same standards as the virtual health skills training centers in leading medical schools in the world and Asia, such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Yale, Duke-NUS, and Taipei Medical University (TMU), among others.

“The accreditation is only the first step towards growth and development at world standards. In 2020, we received basic accreditation.  In three years we aim at full certification, and we are confident that we will succeed,” Asst. Prof. Dr. Suchai said with determination and concluded that “CHAMPS Center is ready to provide educational services, while never stop improving, and keeping ourselves on the cutting edge trend.”

Medical professionals and health care agencies interested in training at CHAMPS Center can submit their request in advance at Tel. +66 2256 4000 ext. 81105, or email: cssc.mdcu@chula.md. 

Take a 360 virtual tour of the CHAMPS CENTER at https://shorturl.asia/IJz5F.

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