NUS Team Produces World's First Abdominal Simulator
05 October 2010
"Anybody who studies needs something to experience. You can't just read or learn from a book; you need to actually practise. And a lot of studies have shown that simulation training is as good for the experience as handling a real-life patient."
Senior Consultant Neurologist at NUS' Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine Assoc Prof Erle Lim.
TEAM EFFORT: Director of the Design Incubation Centre, School Of Design and Environment (SDE), Mr Patrick Chia; Head of the Division of Industrial Design at SDE Assoc Prof Yen Ching Chiuan; recent graduate Dr Ng Chew Lip; Senior Consultant Neurologist at NUS' Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine Assoc Prof Erle Lim; with some SDE students who had played a part in creating Abe, the Tummy Dummy
ORIGINAL TUMMY DUMMY: Developed by Assoc Prof Erle Lim and four of his former medical students - Ng Chew Lip (in the other picture), (from left) Sharif Mahaboob, Ho Quan Yao and Lim Lian Kiat
Simulators are widely used during clinical examination in medical training. While there were simulators developed to perform cardiac and respiratory examinations, deliver a baby and perform surgical and endoscopic procedures, there was no simulator for examination of the abdomen until Abe the Tummy Dummy (TD) was developed.
The idea of creating Abe, the world's first abdominal simulator, was mooted by Senior Consultant Neurologist at NUS' Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine Assoc Prof Erle Lim. He said: "Students have found that role-play using a simulator is very realistic and they are very happy that they can practice, even take their time and make repeated tries, without fear of causing the patient pain."
The first prototype of the TD was a low-cost abdominal simulator built using plaster of paris and fiberglass by Assoc Prof Lim and four of his medical students - Lim Lian Kiat, Sharif Mahaboob, Ho Quan Yao and Ng Chew Lip - who have all graduated recently.
In April 2009, the completion of the prototype coincided with the outbreak of H1N1 influenza which restricted contact between medical students and patients, leading Assoc Prof Lim and his team to pilot a trial of the TD on a group of 44 second-year students who were taking their clinical skills foundation course.
Responses to the TD trial turned out to be very positive, which encouraged Assoc Prof Lim and his team to collaborate with Director of the Design Incubation Centre Mr Patrick Chia and Head of the Division of Industrial Design Assoc Prof Yen Ching Chiuan, both from the NUS School of Design and Environment, to improve the design of the TD. The team developed the second-generation TD in early September 2010.
Going forward, the team plans to incorporate more features in the TD to make the teaching tool even more realistic. They also hope to collaborate with manufacturers to mass produce the TD for medical schools and hospitals worldwide.