I am doing a presentation on using simulations in medical education to
teach cllinical skills, e.g. using standardized patients, human
simulators and virtual reality. I wanted to put this in a historical
context, so my questions is:  When were medical simulations first
used, and how were they used, to teach physicians?

Dear modiano-ga;

Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting question.

The first medical simulations probably developed as soon as physicians
began to devise method of teaching students medical techniques.
Undoubtedly this came first in the form of drawing and paintings. In
1862, renowned Egyptologist Edwin Smith discovered a surgical papyrus
containing hieroglyphics dating from 3000 to 2500 BC that (among other
things) appear to try and map the brain including its surrounding
fluid. It was crude, but nevertheless an attempt to create a model, or
simulation of the human brain, presumably for medical instruction
purposes. In fact, the document has been called an ancient ?Merck
Manual for the management of injury? and contains the first known
reference to the word ?neuro?. The writings and drawings depicted
descriptions of 48 individual cases including:

27 head injuries (cases #1-27) 
6 throat and neck injuries (cases #28-33) 
2 injuries to the clavicle (collarbone) (cases #34-35) 
3 injuries to the arm (cases #36-38) 
8 injuries to the sternum (breastbone) and ribs (cases #39-46) 
1 injury to the shoulder(case #47) 
1 injury to the spine (case #48)

You can read the entire translation of the hieroglyphics here:

EGYPTIAN ORTHOPEDIC ASSOCIATION
http://www.eoa.org.eg/edwintxt.htm

Between the 16th and 18th centuries there was an interest in ?Clastic
Art? or ?Clastic Illustrations? that depicted the internal human body
in a multi-dimensional form for the purposes of entertainment as well
as instruction.

Then again, in terms of a real, hands-on model used for simulation,
clearly the human skeleton (like the Hamann-Todd Osteological
Collection) is certainly a candidate for the earliest model used for
instructional purposes. While anthropologists have been doing this for
centuries and we have no idea who might have done this first for the
sole purposes of instruction, I think it is safe to say that a cleaned
and reassembled human skeleton (medical) or skull (dentistry) are the
most likely objects to be considered the oldest simulation tools in
the medical field.

If you must have a date for the first modern synthetic simulator, in
1958 ?Asmund S. Laerdal of Stavanger, Norway, a professional doll and
toy maker by trade, began work on a life-like manikin for training
people to perform mouth to mouth resuscitation.  Laerdal wanted the
face of the manikin to look like a young girl who had drowned in the
Seine River in Paris (and who might have survived if such training had
it been available at the time) so he commissioned the well-known
sculptress Emma Mathiassen to model a face in her likeness.  In 1960
Laerdal unveiled the simulator resembling the Girl from the River
Seine and named the tool ?Resusci Anne? in her honor.


Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any
questions about my research please post a clarification request prior
to rating the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final
comments and I look forward to working with you again in the near
future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga


INFORMATION SOURCES

CONSERVATIVE CARE: EDWIN SMITH
http://www.burtonreport.com/InfSpine/ConservEdwinSmith.htm

THE EDWIN SMITH SURGICAL PAPYRUS
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/papy.html

HAMANN-TODD OSTEOLOGICAL COLLECTION
http://www.cmnh.org/collections/hamann-todd.html

L?ART MEDICAL
http://www.xs4all.nl/~artmed/clastic/clastic-tekst.html

SIMTECH 2001
http://www.siaa.asn.au/simtect/2001/simkey.htm

HISTORY OF PARAMEDICS
http://www.monroecc.edu/depts/pstc/parashis.htm


SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINE USED:

Google ://www.google.com


SEARCH TERMS USED:

Medical simulators

Earliest medical simulators

Medical training aids

Medical training devices

Also replaced the search term ?earliest? with the terms ?oldest? and
?first? and replaced the term ?medical? with ?medicine?, ?surgical?
and ?dental?

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Clarification of Answer by tutuzdad-ga on 23 Nov 2003 13:11 PST

I also found this after the fact and thought you might find it interesting:

"A Typology of Simulators for Medical Education"
http://www.medsim.com/profile/article1.html
(scroll down to "History of Medical Simulators")

PENN STATE
http://www.hmc.psu.edu/simulation/sim_list/Anatomic/anatomic.html

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

Thank you so much.  I'm very impressed with the quality of the
information, and how quickly you got it. Thanks!