BIOENGINEERING 329 Benedum Hall | 3700 O’Hara Street | Pittsburgh, PA 15261
Joseph Thomas Samosky, PhD Assistant Professor
P: 412-624-7351 jts35@pitt.edu
Simulation and Medical Technology Laboratory The Sim|Med|Tech Lab is a multidisciplinary research, development and innovation center directed by Dr. Joseph Samosky. Our mission is to integrate design, engineering and clinical medicine to invent next-generation enabling technologies for simulationbased healthcare training and new “smart” medical devices. Our ultimate goals are improving patient care and enhancing patient safety. Simulation-based training in healthcare offers hands-on, experiential learning with objective feedback while not exposing real patients to risk during training. Just as flight
simulation revolutionized crew training and dramatically improved safety in aviation, simulation-based experiences can promote learning and enable medical students, physicians, nurses and first responders to practice skills and receive quantitative feedback on their performance before treating actual patients. Our research centers on the development of both fundamental new enabling technologies and practical systems for healthcare simulation, the user-centric design of real-time interactions, sensors, advanced information displays, learner-adaptive feedback, and autonomous operation.
BodyExplorer Augmented Reality Simulator BodyExplorer is a next-generation medical simulator designed to enhance the ability of healthcare trainees to learn anatomy, physiology and clinical procedures though naturalistic interaction with an augmented reality enhanced full-body simulated patient. BodyExplorer is designed to enable 24/7 on-demand training and self-learning for students by providing an intuitive interface, immediate feedback and automated instruction using a highly sensorized physical body, projected augmented reality (AR), and an integrated virtual instructor. AR enables “x-ray vision” views inside the body, enabling trainees to see the internal effects and consequences of their actions. We have developed novel sensor systems for common clinical procedures such as identifying injected drugs and sensing the depth of insertion of an endotracheal tube. Injection of cardioactive drug simulants, for example, results in automatic changes to heart rate, audible heart sounds and displayed ECG waveforms.
DEPARTMENT OF BIOENGINEERING
Laboratory Director Dr. Joseph Samosky Dr. Samosky received his PhD in Medical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. He received his MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, and his BS in Behavioral Neuroscience and BSE in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. His work has been recognized with the first-place award for technology innovation at the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare, a Coulter Translational Research Award, and exhibition at the ACCelerate Creativity and Innovation Festival at the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Samosky is an enthusiastic advocate of experiential learning, design thinking and project-based, hands-on engineering education. He has mentored over 150 bioengineering students in senior design projects and also teaches in the Department of Bioengineering’s Medical Product Innovation graduate program.
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