News and Progress

$2.3 million gift to medicine brings together learning and technology to train medical professionals of tomorrow

Sept. 16, 2005

Students at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine will have an opportunity to hone their medical skills by working with high-tech, mock patients thanks to a $2.3 million gift from Russell and Mary Shelden.

The gift will fund the Russell D. and Mary B. Shelden Clinical Simulation Center where students will learn to perform complex medical procedures on electronically controlled mannequins.

“Being an anesthesiologist, I know how essential this Center and these mannequins are to the training of people in medical professions,” Russell Shelden said. “After speaking with the dean, we saw a need for this, and we're happy we were in a position to support this important project.”

The Center is now open in a temporary location in the medical sciences library. It will be permanently housed in the Clinical Support and Education Building, which is scheduled for completion in early 2008. The gift will provide operational funds for the Center and provide three simulation mannequins to be used in medical instruction.

“It is a major gift both in size and direction,” said William Crist, dean of the MU School of Medicine. “It will have a tremendous effect on all healthcare professionals educated at MU, including students, faculty, residents, nurses and others. Much like pilots, who log considerable hours in a simulator to perfect their technique before taking control of a real plane, our students will have extensive experience in patient care before performing procedures on live patients.”

The simulation mannequins represent a new wave of medical instruction. The advanced technology built into the mannequins allows students to perform various medical procedures while receiving real-time feedback in much the same way they would from a human patient. The mannequins breathe, have a pulse, have eyes that dilate and can react to various drugs introduced by medical students. The experience they offer students is invaluable, medical instructors say.

“Medical simulation is the learning of medical skills in the laboratory setting, where no patient outcomes are affected, before using these skills to care for real patients,” said Karen Calhoun, chair of MU's Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery and chair of the simulation center steering committee. “Thousands of different scenarios can be constructed, from anesthesia in the operating room and codes in the ICUs and emergency departments to first responder situations.”

Calhoun added that students can practice multiple scenarios over and over again until they become second nature. She also said that other non-mannequin simulators in the Center will allow students to practice complex procedures such as breast and pelvic exams, to simpler procedures such as starting an IV.

“This is how you want your doctors to have trained, this is how you want the anesthesiologist who'll put you to sleep to have trained, how you want the internist who listens to your heart rhythm to have trained, how you want the surgeon performing your surgery to have trained,” Calhoun said. “This is the future of medical education, and we are building it right here at the MU School of Medicine.”

The gift bears the distinction of breaking the original For All We Call Mizzou campaign goal of $600 million. Members of the University family celebrated the success of the campaign today and announced a new goal of $1 billion to be raised by Dec. 31, 2008.

Shelden earned a bachelor of arts degree in chemistry from MU in 1942, his bachelor of science degree in medicine in 1947, and his medical degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1949. While at MU he was a member of Phi Delta Theta, Phi Beta Pi, senior ROTC, Scabbard and Blade, and QEBH, a secret honorary society. He served as a member of the clinical faculty in the Department of Anesthesiology in the School of Medicine for 25 years and rose to the rank of clinical professor. He and his wife have funded two chairs in anesthesiology, created the Student Anesthesiology Award Fund to recognize outstanding students, and were among the first to create an endowed fund for the benefit of the School.