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As college football season was gearing up several years ago, CAE Healthcare's iStan patient simulator joined the University of South Florida Bulls for a one-time, interdisciplinary simulation. Dressed in a full football uniform, iStan suffered a rare but life-threatening spinal injury on the field. The entire sports medicine team responded.
USF conducts sports injury simulations with its athletic training majors, but this was first multi-disciplinary effort, with faculty and staff from the Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Department, USF Athletics, the Sports Medicine and Athletic Related Trauma Institute (SMART), Tampa Fire Rescue and additional staff from the University of Tampa, St. Leo University and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“They talked to each other for the first time about a scenario,” said Dr. Micki Cuppett, who was director of the Athletic Training Education Program at USF Health at the time. “That was impactful. They continued the conversation after the debriefing.”
