In a fully equipped operating theatre at the German Heart Institute in Berlin trainee surgeons, anaesthetists and cardio-technicians practise open-heart surgery on a sophisticated dummy. A Geutebruck hybrid recorder stores video, audio and theatre equipment data, while streaming it in real time to the trainer in the control room and to fellow students in a lecture theatre. With a special medical torso, complete with beating heart and simulated responses to different drug treatments and interventions, theatre teams practise new procedures and learn how to cope with the unexpected without endangering real patients.
The re_porter-based video system installed by Berlin-based Alarmsysteme Richter & Co. GmbH is key to the training process. It enables an instructor to realistically control the dummy and the operating theatre equipment remotely; it allows operations to be observed live and in close-up from a nearby lecture theatre; and it enables participants to subsequently review and analyse their actions so they learn more.
