COTC Ultrasound Brings CARES Act Funding Full Circle with New Equipment

Central Ohio Technical College’s (COTC) diagnostic medical sonography (DMS) technology program constantly strives to provide students the opportunity to learn on the most up-to-date equipment. DMS Program Director Melinda Brillhart utilized recent Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act funding to purchase two SCANTRAINER® simulators from United Kingdom-based company Intelligent Ultrasound.

The simulator offers a comprehensive and structured educational pathway from learning basic principles of ultrasound to scanning and diagnosing anomalies and pathology across multiple clinical disciplines including emergency medicine, general medicine, obstetrics and gynecology.

“In addition to learning how to recognize and perform sonographic examinations on patients, our students gain hands-on experience scanning a variety of ultrasounds with and without disease in the lab prior to their first clinical experience thanks to the SCANTRAINER® simulators we have purchased,” said Brillhart.

It also features a cloud system that offers users a ground-breaking range of new features and educational tools that will optimize the teaching scope and learning potential including over 900 patient case studies from users across the globe in a variety of clinical settings.

“The simulator uses actual case studies where real COVID patients were imaged and their pathologies were programmed into the haptic simulator “body” making it feel like you are scanning a real patient,” said Brillhart.

The ability to utilize these new simulators to study patient cases of what has come to be known as COVID lung is a great example how COTC’s DMS program used CARES Act funding to ensure that future healthcare workers will be able to identify patients experiencing the aftereffects of the current pandemic-causing virus.

Brillhart continued, “Our students are entering the clinical environment with up-to-date, current scanning skills — even the latest medical conditions like COVID pathologies that the entire world is still working to understand.” 

In recent years, the program utilized OB/GYN SCANTRAINER® systems, but the necessity of the new simulators has become apparent as the program has expanded its skills training offerings.

COTC offers an Associate of Applied Science in Diagnostic Medical Sonography Technology with three majors: general (abdominal, obstetrical and gynecological) and cardiovascular (echocardiography and vascular) and special modalities (cross-train in multiple sonography specialties). The DMS program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs upon the recommendation of the Joint Committee on Education in Diagnostic Medical Sonography. Learn more at go.cotc.edu/dms.

Caption: DMS Instructor Natasha Ford, MS, RDMS (AB, OB, BR), RVT, demonstrates obstetrics scanning on a new SCANTRAINER® simulator at DMS labs on COTC’s Newark campus.