Another Canadian Trauma Training Course Goes Animal Free

Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, recently informed PCRM that it stopped using live pigs in its trauma training program. The university will instead use the TraumaMan System simulator, which provides a more realistic, human-centered training experience.

Like many of PCRM’s Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) victories, this one was achieved through a coordinated approach. While PCRM cardiologist John Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C., was in discussions with the university’s ATLS course director, PCRM attorney Mark Kennedy was pursuing access to the institution’s records through Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

This latest Canadian victory follows others in 2009. Last year, PCRM persuaded both Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine to stop using live pigs in their ATLS programs and exclusively use the TraumaMan System.

Now, 95 percent of U.S. and Canadian facilities that provide ATLS training use human-patient simulators. But a handful of programs continue to use live animals.

Learn how you can help end the use of animals in other trauma training programs at HumaneTraumaTraining.org.