CAMC’s Center for Learning and Research
By Dale Witte
The Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC) Institute for Academic Medicine’s goal is to ensure its physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other clinical caregivers are prepared to care for the people in the community today and for decades to come. To support that goal, CAMC just opened its new Center for Learning and Research.
This nearly 60,000-square-foot center has been designed to support the training of all types of health care professionals, serving as a learning environment for residents and students from affiliated universities around the state and beyond. It provides space for live, virtual and multi-site programs, supporting learners from nearly any location.
The highlight of the center is a state-of-the-art simulation facility, providing learners an environment to practice skills and use new equipment, helping them safely transfer skills and knowledge to patient care. Think of a surgeon and surgical team practicing in a virtual environment that even includes a patient’s specific condition and anatomy if needed.
“This is the preeminent center for training health care providers in our region,” says Sharon Hall, president of the CAMC Institute for Academic Medicine. “The center will promote a team learning environment, serving thousands of learners, staff and students annually from many disciplines. Our research teams will continue to promote innovation and evidence-based learning to serve our patients.”
The new Center for Learning and Research includes a 3D digital table with an anatomy and virtual dissection platform. This virtual reality table is the most technologically advanced 3D anatomy visualization system in use for anatomy education.
The 12 simulation rooms—including inpatient and outpatient—more than double the capacity of the prior simulation center. Additional larger simulation rooms represent an operating room, an emergency room bay area and a labor and delivery suite. These new facilities will continuously advance the care CAMC provides to the community.
There are also procedural rooms where specialized equipment will be used for training in endoscopy ultrasound, laparoscopy and other common procedures.
The center features new high-fidelity mannequins that mimic human body functions, have different skin tones and represent patients of all ages—from newborn to geriatric.
“This center is a physical representation of CAMC’s long-standing and continuing commitment to health sciences education,” says Doug Knutson, M.D., chief academic officer for the CAMC Institute for Academic Medicine. “It’s one of the most advanced medical training facilities I’ve seen.”
The CAMC Foundation raised $6.2 million of the $21 million total cost of the center.
For more than 50 years, CAMC has been committed to a mission of education, training thousands of physicians, nurse anesthetists, nurses, psychologists and other health science professionals. On any given day, there are nearly 1,000 student learners in CAMC’s facilities in Charleston, WV.
In fact, teaching and training medical students and physician residents was one of the main reasons for the 1972 merger of Memorial Hospital and General Hospital to create CAMC.
CAMC’s medical education programs help attract, grow and retain health care providers in West Virginia. The CAMC Institute for Academic Medicine manages 24 residency and fellowship training programs with more than 225 training positions. Each year, many residents and fellows graduate from CAMC programs with a large number remaining in West Virginia to practice or continue training.
All of these pieces together provide a better learning experience and educational environment and have a significant impact on the level of care CAMC provides to the community, as well as the skill and expertise of the providers who go on to practice in West Virginia.
