Jon Allen, M.D., Assistant Dean, Northeast Campus
Director and Associate Professor, Simulation Center
No dummies need apply. This job is for high-tech people created entirely of rubberized plastic, silicone tubing, fine-tunable electric motors, a voice synthesizer, and a lot of computing power.
Meet the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences human patient simulators, all 12 of them, including four Norwegians, one pregnant woman ready to deliver, and a baby, ready and waiting in the School’s Simulation Center to help students learn medicine.
The Center—which will be fully operational next year—is run by Dr. Jon Allen, a physician who specializes in internal medicine and teaches at UND.
“These simulators breathe: they have heart and lung and abdominal sounds; they can sweat, cry, and urinate,” said Allen, who also chaired the committee that assembled the simulator project over the last several years. “Pass your hand over their eyes—the pupils dilate and contract as the light around them changes. Some of them can even be set up to display traumatic wounds, such as an amputated leg.”
