How CESI Is Helping Develop the Next Generation of Medical Devices | Hartford HealthCare
December 05, 2022
When Zoll, a global maker of medical devices used to treat patients with serious heart conditions, had an idea for how to build a better defibrillator, they turned to the experts at Hartford HealthCare’s Center for Education, Simulation and Innovation (CESI).

“They brought in a half-gallon milk carton with markings on the sides to show us what the new defibrillator could look like,’’ said Stephen Donahue, co-founder and director of operations for CESI, describing Zoll’s low-tech prototype.

The idea was to build a hospital defibrillator that was much simpler to use and provided guidance to inexperienced users, while enabling doctors and nurses familiar with the device to grab it and go if a patient’s heart stops.

The new defibrillator, now on the market, is just one example of how CESI is fueling life-saving innovation by providing an incubator for the development and testing of medical devices and therapies.

> Learn much more about Hartford Healthcare’s Middle for Education, Simulation and Innovation (CESI)

“People appear to us at all stages,’’ stated Steven Shichman, MD, a surgeon and CESI’s govt director. Sometimes they want to kick the tires on an plan, operate it by practitioners. Occasionally, we test a prototype so they can discover out how it performs in the real globe.”

For example, a company was developing packaging for instruments made use of in working room and intensive care units. To make sure the packaging was straightforward to open up, CESI invited suppliers and nurses to test it in a simulated OR. Organization engineers watched from a remote site so they could identify challenges they may perhaps not have anticipated. HHC end users also provided opinions for how to make the item improved.

Not too long ago, just one of the world’s most significant health care system organizations accomplished the the vast majority of the Foodstuff and Drug Administration testing of a new robotic surgical platform working with CESI’s state-of-the-artwork labs.

CESI has been instrumental to HHC’s innovation efforts. This 7 days HHC is celebrating “Innovation Week,” which celebrates how the process is establishing innovative applications, functioning with pioneering partners and advancing new methods to make health care additional accessible, economical, equitable and outstanding for the individuals and communities it serves.

> Linked: Connecticut Innovations and Hartford Healthcare Announce Partnership

In its 53,000-square-foot building across the street from Hartford Hospital, CESI homes large-fidelity simulation rooms that appear and feel exactly like genuine operating rooms, ICUs and labor and shipping and delivery rooms. Mannequins can simulate every thing from childbirth to a coronary heart assault. All health care suppliers and product sales reps from health care device corporations can also practice on cadavers and inanimate tissue styles.

Contracts with some of the world’s major professional medical system companies and the U.S. armed service provide in more than enough profits to assistance CESI’s most important mission to assistance coach all providers in HHC to offer safer and larger excellent treatment to our individuals.

“We’re not a believe tank,” Shichman stated. “We’re built and staffed to be a resource for the [medical device] market so they can acquire new merchandise.”

Here’s a enjoyment actuality: CESI’s simulation rooms are so sensible that they have been used as film sets. If you are viewing holiday getaway flicks, examine out “Next Cease, Christmas” on the Hallmark Channel. The clinic scenes ended up filmed at CESI.

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