Pulse!! Fact Sheet
WHO: Military and civilian health-profession students and practitioners will have, for the first time, an education and training tool that provides an experiential environment to prepare, care for and treat catastrophic health insults resulting from terrorism and bioterrorism. Pulse!! creates the space to 'see one, practice many, do one, teach one' thereby decreasing death and injury rates.
WHAT: The Pulse!! team is building a dynamic, multi-user, immersive virtual environment where students and practitioners in the health-care disciplines can acquire and practice clinical skills. Pulse!! associates its virtual health-care system to an extensive patient simulation modeling system that enables a suite of tools powering next-generation, just-in-time learning, responding to real-time health-care needs.
WHERE: The Virtual Learning Space project is housed on the campus of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
WHEN: Beta testing for Pulse!! is scheduled for early 2007. Future phases will enable rapid scenario production for replicating real-world situations in the virtual environment to expedite development of treatments and care patterns responding to dynamic insults to human life.
WHY: Simulated experiences offer advantages over training in actual environments. They provide more flexibility, greater efficiency, improved ability to measure and assess progress, offer a safe space for learner failure, reduce ongoing and long-term costs and are able to be distributed and updated rapidly in response to changes. Virtual patients, powered by artificial intelligence engines, in a virtual healthcare environment, react as live patients would, and practitioners and students see the immediate, realistic consequences of their actions.
HOW: Funding for the Pulse!! Project is provided through the Office of Naval Research, Department of the Navy, to Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Pulse!! is strongly supported by U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Texas (27th Congressional District), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Readiness and Military Construction. In addition to University staff, the Pulse!! team includes BreakAway Ltd. and Digitalmill, both widely recognized as leaders in the virtual learning and training environment. BreakAway brings extensive expertise in creating simulations, 3-D visualization tools and other cutting-edge technologies to build Pulse!! in consultation with the University staff. Digitalmill provides overall project consultation. The goal is to create the most advanced virtual medical environment for health-care professionals to learn critical skill sets anytime, anywhere.
