He is tall, dark and definitely a heart throb. Harvey, the man-sized medical cardiology patient simulator will soon be enrolled at every medical school in the UK courtesy of the British Heart Foundation who have invested over £1million in the project nationwide.
Now doctors from the University of Dundee who were the first to introduce cardiology teaching with Harvey in the UK, are to share their expertise with other medical schools by establishing a national resource centre. The aim of the centre is to facilitate the integration of this novel teaching aid and its associated computer assisted learning programme (UMedic) into teaching in all UK medical schools.
The £120,000 British Heart Foundation Harvey Resource Centre will be launched at the Association for Medical Education in Europe Conference to be held in Lisbon this week (29 August - 1 September). The centre, which will employ one full time manager and involve a range of other professionals, will be based at the University of Dundee's internationally renowned Centre for Medical Education.
Dr Stuart Pringle who will co-direct the centre with colleagues Dr Shihab Khogali and Professor Ronald Harden said: "Harvey is an extremely useful teaching tool which helps medical students study cardiology in a novel and very practical way. Harvey can mimic 27 different heart conditions giving the students "hands-on" clinical experience on the simulator before transferring their skills to the examination of real patients. Amongst other clinical skills the students can practise taking the pulse, measuring blood pressure and listening to a variety of heart murmurs all accurately reproduced.
"We hope our research and experience will help other universities to make best use of their Harveys and maximise the British Heart Foundation's investment to train future generations of doctors and cardiologists."
The Dundee team has a close association with the University of Miami where Professor Michael Gordon's pioneering work in simulators in Medical Education has led to the development of Harvey over the last thirty years.
Now Dundee will put its experience and expertise to excellent use through the new resource centre. The centre will give advice and assistance on the use of Harvey, share experiences between users both in the UK and overseas, set up a network of users and assist with technical support. A Harvey helpline and website will be established as well as a newsletter and a range of resource materials./ends