PCRM 2005: The Year in Review |
Med Schools Go High-Tech—and Humane
 PCRM has long encouraged medical schools to drop the use of live
animals as teaching tools in favor of high-tech alternatives such
as computer programs and simulators. Currently, only 22 medical
schools in the country still use animals in their curricula, while
104 schools are now animal-free.
The surgery
department at the University of Texas Health Science Center, in
San Antonio, is a good example of the effectiveness of PCRM’s
campaign. After being contacted by our staffers last fall, the
department decided to stop using live goats to teach chest tube
insertion and other techniques in three surgery classes. Instead,
instructors will use a new teaching facility equipped with state-of-the-art
simulators and virtual reality technology, which professors agree
is better preparation for working on real patients. PCRM also confirmed
that the medical schools at Brown University and Howard University
have stopped using live animals.
In the coming months, PCRM will
step up its efforts to convince the remaining schools still using
animals that non-animal teaching methods are superior ethically
and educationally. Given the popularity of new medical simulators such as SimMan
and SimBaby—which
spurred major stories on National Public Radio and in the New
Yorker magazine
in 2005—medical schools have no reason not to adopt modern
alternatives.
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