Health Care of the Virtual Kind
Pilot testing of the CyberSurgeons™ program took place in 2010 as the online mission for high school students moves toward final dissemination. Evaluation activities also were underway for the research aspect of the project. In 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.