Marvelous Mr. Meti
On Friday of last week, Sandy and I traveled down to North Carolina to see a Meti-Man in action. What is a Meti-Man? A Meti-Man is a Human Patient Simulator. According to the Meti website:
The Human Patient Simulator (HPS) – a computer-model-driven, full-sized mannequin – delivers that experience in true-to-life scenarios that swiftly change to meet instructors’ goals.
I knew that I was in for an interesting day when Sandy asked the Director of the Simulation Lab if she had \”a good recipe for clotted blood.\”
It was quite amazing to watch the simulation man in action. Our colleague manipulated the Meti-Man in all kinds of ways to my amazement. Here, Meti-Man has a swollen tongue as one of his symptoms. (View image) The next shot shows the monitor (View image) that checks Meti’s vital signs to make sure that he isn’t having a heart attack or that his oxygen level is too low. This is a shot of the 
compressed air that Meti needs in order to \”breathe.\”
It was fascinating for me to take the pulse of the HPS from his arm or his foot. I could really see how this tool in teaching could be extremely effective to run a simulated activity without having to have a \”live\” patient present. I read a number of articles that described how students actually cried when the Meti-Man died during the activity. I very much look forward to setting up our own marvelous meti and getting the reactions of the students as they work with this amazing teaching tool.