Enhanced Clinical Training Mannequin

Abstract

The group was tasked by the Florida Atlantic University’s Clinical Skills Simulation Center (CSSC) with developing a solution to combat their negative experiences with the medical mannequins currently in possession. Currently, the mannequins cost over $100,000 and do not meet their expectations. The mannequins that the CSSC use to train students are heavy, have poor sound quality, and lack functions that are crucial in the education process. To remedy these deficiencies, our group sought to develop a mannequin that realistically simulates the human body for medical procedures within a training environment.  To address the issue of maneuverability, a linear actuator was used to move the mannequin from the Supine position to the Fowler’s position which will alleviate the strain on the students from having to manual lift the mannequin. In order to improve sound quality, programmable Near Field Communication (“NFC”) Tags were placed at key points on the body and when activated, the corresponding sound will play through a speaker attached to the stethoscope of the user. This feature contains a library of sounds for ailments that a doctor would be able to detect by listening with a stethoscope. The functions of the mannequin were enhanced by adding features to complement the functions. Alertness was simulated by enabling the mannequin to face its user when it senses that he or she are within proximity.  Breathing was included to provide cues for the trainee that correlate to the sounds that would be programmed into the NFC tags. To simulate the epidermis, the covering of the mannequin is a rubber compound with emulated pigment and texture for the skin.