As part of the innovation work, Dr. Hart often presents a problem to the engineering students and then brings them to the operating room to see a simulated surgery first hand. The students then come up ideas for different devices that could help solve the problem.
"We go in with problems," he said. "We don’t go in and say, ‘I have an idea for a medical device.’ That’s actually the last thing we want to do."
As part of that process, Dr. Hart and his colleagues also work closely with industry on device development and commercialization. And the device and pharmaceutical industry is also a presence in other parts of CAMLS. Medical device and pharmaceutical companies come to the center to train their sales forces and their clients, said Deborah Sutherland, Ph.D., the CEO of CAMLS.
One of the reasons that CAMLS is able to offer its services to groups and individuals who are not affiliated with the University of South Florida is that the center is part of a not-for-profit corporation that includes USF Health.
CAMLS is run on a business model, not a traditional academic model, Dr. Sutherland said. CAMLS does not receive any financial support from the University of South Florida. All of the revenue comes instead from user fees.
"That is very unique because most simulation centers that you see nationally are supported by a clinical department," she said.
That type of approach may make CAMLS the envy of other simulation centers around the country, said Dr. Carol A. Aschenbrener, the chief medical education officer at the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Running a simulation center is costly, with the annual price tag ranging anywhere between $50,000 and $2.5 million, depending on the scope of the center and the staffing levels, she said. A 2010 survey conducted by the AAMC shows that most of these centers are funded either by a medical school or a teaching hospital. With those organizations under significant financial pressure, many are looking carefully at other ways to pay the bills. A handful of centers are actively developing new business models, she said, but it’s early on in the process. "So people are watching the South Florida center very closely," Dr. Aschenbrener said.