Ground-breaking project unveiled by Bristol medical firm
Bristol-based medical task trainer specialist Limbs and Things has released a ground-breaking product which is set to revolutionise medical training.
Medical practitioners will be able to better recognise and diagnose more than 30 chronic conditions and life-threatening emergencies with the release of Limbs & Things’ most ambitious and complex product in its 30-year history.
The CaRE (Cardiovascular & Respiratory Examination) trainer is an anatomically correct adult torso model designed to help medical trainees practice cardiovascular and respiratory examinations. It is the first medical simulator of its kind anywhere in the world to synchronise both heart and lung sounds and movement, with patent pending technology.
Limbs & Things team has spent four years and over 50,000 hours on the research and development of CaRE, combining various technologies in new ways to make CaRE as lifelike as possible.
With authentic pulses, chest movement, heart beats and murmurs, CaRE realistically replicates over 30 different clinical cases – from conditions like pneumonia, COPD and atrial fibrillation, to potentially life-threatening emergencies such as sepsis, pneumothorax (collapsed lung), and heart failure. It is supported by an app that offers customisable lesson plans, assessments, and training in individual skills.
The trainer can mimic the signs of serious conditions like sepsis – which presents as a high heart and breathing rate – along with the sensation of a physical pulse and chest movement, allowing learners to recognise the signs as if it were a real patient.
Anne Allin, commercial director, Limbs & Things, said: “It’s taken a significant amount of time and investment to develop this complex, novel technology that we believe will revolutionise the way trainees practice and learn these respiratory and cardiovascular examination skills. Before now, a medical trainee would usually go through all levels of training without ever experiencing these serious conditions in real life practice, usually limited to practicing on fellow students or more rudimentary heart or lung models.
“We know from working with medical communities around the world, this was a product missing in the medical training portfolio. We hope that it will be a game-changer in supporting medics to accurately recognise and diagnose a huge range of serious and sometimes life-threatening conditions.”
CaRE has been rigorously tested for both realism and reliability in the UK and the US. The usability has been tested through extensive UK medical student feedback alongside Limbs & Things’ standard evaluation process.
The simplicity of the user interface and usability is one of the major features of CaRE that separates it from other trainers in the marketplace that offer similar skills.
