Prognosis Looks Good for CyberSurgeons™
Developing a sound educational product takes both time and patience as well as testing, and tinkering. In 2008 we did a lot of the latter in the development of CyberSurgeons™, our new e-Mission™ targeting high school science students. We tested variations of it all year and now are close to unveiling it in its final version as scheduled in 2009. With this e-Mission, funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, high school students become part of a fictional CyberSurgeons remote trauma unit on a ship that's one of a fleet of rapid-response trauma units headquartered in Washington, D.C. Their ship is equipped with a high-tech hospital and medical research capabilities, state-of-the-art high-end communications systems, and dedicated satellites to relay information. Their mission is conducted through a videoconference hookup from the students' classroom to the Center for Educational Technologies®. Before the live simulation students learn how to analyze and apply simple datasets to authentic health problems.