University of Texas at San Antonio, Georgetown
University End Use of Animals in Coursework
Medical education has taken a huge step forward at two major
medical schools. In July, PCRM learned that the University of Texas
Health Science Center at San Antonio and Georgetown University
Medical Center have expanded their use of modern teaching methods
and eliminated live animal labs from their undergraduate medical
curricula. PCRM had been working for years to promote non-animal
methods at both schools.
 “The replacement of animal use with simulators and other
advanced teaching methods combines the best education, the best
ethics, and the best use of resources,” PCRM
senior medical and research adviser John J. Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C.,
said.
Three surgery classes at the University of Texas had
used live animals to teach surgery techniques. Those animals have
now been replaced with modern medical simulators, which can simulate
cardiovascular, pulmonary, and metabolic responses of the human
body and also allow students the benefit of practicing the surgical
techniques more than once. Animal use has also been eliminated
from a first-year physiology class and a fourth-year anesthesiology
research elective.
The university has been ahead of the curve on
the advantages of simulation technology for several years. The
department of anesthesiology began using Laerdal SimMan, a life-size
simulator that mimics heartbeats, pulses, and audible complaints,
in 2002 when it was one of only 18 medical schools in the country
to have that type of anesthesia simulation technology.
Georgetown University School of Medicine ended
the use of pigs for procedures such as suturing in its third-year
surgery clerkship class for the 2006-2007 school year. After an
annual review by the school’s
animal use committee, the surgery department decided to drop the
animal laboratory in favor of simulation as a teaching tool.
The
schools’ elimination of animals in surgery classes may
be the beginning of a positive trend. This spring, the American
College of Surgeons (ACS) released a sweeping educational reform
program. The ACS established the Accredited Education Institutes
program, which provides a detailed structure for
surgery training programs that replaces all animal use with simulators
and other non-animal teaching methods. With the ACS specifically
recommending alternatives to animals in surgery programs, U.S.
medical schools should find no reason to continue using animals
in surgery courses.
A handful of schools still use live animal
labs in medical training. As the new school year begins, please
consider contacting medical schools that still use live animal
labs. Visit http://www.pcrm.org/resch/meded.
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