PICU without Walls

Under the leadership of Dr. Jeffrey Burns, Chief of the Division of Critical Care Medicine, and Dr. Traci Wolbrink, Assistant in Critical Care Medicine at Children’s Hospital Boston, PICU without Walls is soon to launch a web-based educational resource for clinicians around the world. By harnessing the unparalleled reach of the Internet, and in close collaboration with IBM Interactive, access to the latest knowledge about effective health care will no longer be bottlenecked within the walls of institutions, but shared instantly so that clinicians across the globe can gain access to life-saving information at any time. The early 2012 beta launch of this comprehensive, continuously updated, and peer-reviewed knowledge exchange platform will be dedicated to providing multimedia and interactive educational resources to physicians and nurses on optimal care of the critically ill child.  More specifically, the overall objectives include providing information on demand, curricular learning maps for training clinicians, and a platform for knowledge exchange and collaboration between care providers around the world. 

The PICU without Walls project builds upon a decade of experience with medical simulation and has progressed from the development of the pilot prototype in 2009, to the current platform containing an interactive mechanical ventilator and customizable bedside tools to be released with the 2012 launch; this beta release will include 1000 users in hospitals across six continents. A total of 9 modules will cover a range of topics pertinent to the care of critically ill children. Each topic will include expert content, including video lectures and demonstrations, pre- and post-topic knowledge assessments, and best practices, in the form of protocols or guidelines. When applicable, a module will also include a simulator or avatar-based simulations to allow for more comprehensive and interactive learning. This website, the first of its kind, is a concentrated effort to extend pediatric medical knowledge regarding critical care medicine over the Internet and ultimately to reduce the number of preventable deaths of children around the world.

Does this educational platform sound like one that might benefit your healthcare organization?  If so, we are excited to announce that we are looking for sites to participate in the beta release of this application in early 2012.  Please be in touch with Traci Wolbrink ( traci.wolbrink@childrens.harvard.edu) for additional information.