West Midlands Surgical Training Centre

Funded by the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority, the West Midlands Surgical Training Centre is located within the main University Hospital building to provide comprehensive simulation of a real operating environment and deliver medical, educational and instructional teaching using plastinated specimens. It is also one of only a handful of UK medical training facilities to have been granted a Human Tissue Authority licence that allows trainee surgeons to practise on cadaveric material, providing them with what lecturers say is a far more realistic operating experience than they would get via more conventional practice on models. The Centre has a state-of-the-art surgical suite and an adjoining 30 seat seminar room. In the training suite, the eight clinical training tables are equipped with Brandon Medical Operating Theatre lights At each station is a 'Stack' with arthroscopic camera and light source together with multiple power sockets, data ports, an adjustable pressure water supply, suction and free drainage. The monitors give access to e-learning material which can be called up to enhance the teaching session in real time. A control system links the tables to a 46” LCD screen in the suite, allowing a wide range of sources to be displayed. This includes live surgery, room cameras and recorded media. The control system is also linked to screens in the adjoining seminar room. A two-way AV link to the adjacent lecture room, operating theatres and the internet allows fully flexible integrated programmes and even virtual presence for distant trainees or course delegates.