An anesthesiologist, a mannequin and representatives from Japan were all together in a tiny room in U Hospital Friday afternoon. Although there were many smiles, it was no joke.
Six doctors stood around a dummy and injected it with fake medicines and read its fabricated health statistics.
Occasionally, they stopped and examined small Powerpoint diagrams projected onto the wall behind them while 10 other people looked on. It was a training session to teach Japanese anesthesiologists how to use a new drug.
The drug, Remifentanil, developed by anesthesiologists at the U, was recently approved for use in Japan. It is quick-acting and allows patients to wake rapidly.
Five physicians came from Japan to learn about using the drug firsthand from the U’s expert, Talmage Egan, an associate professor of anesthesiology.
Egan taught the visiting doctors the procedure by using Stan, the hospital’s computer-controlled mannequin. Stan breathes and talks and his eyes dilate and move around.
Stan was controlled by Noah Syroid, who sat in the corner behind three computer monitors. Syroid had Stan respond to the medication the doctors injected into him and the tubes pushed down his throat.
In turn, the doctors responded to Stan’s reactions. “It’s kind of like ‘The Wizard of Oz,'” Syroid said with a smile about the setup.
Aside from the doctors and hospital staff in green smocks assisting with the demonstration, there were six other people in black suits in the room watching. They were from the pharmaceutical company producing the drug in Japan and from Japanese media corporations.
