University of Texas at San Antonio, Georgetown University End Use of Live Animal Labs |
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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 (UTHSCSA) and Georgetown University
Medical Center have expanded their use of modern teaching
methods and have eliminated live animal labs from their entire medical
curricula. These developments mean that just 19 of the 125 U.S.
allopathic medical schools continue to use animals in their courses.
PCRM senior medical and research adviser John J. Pippin, M.D.,
F.A.C.C., applauds the schools for their decisions. “The
replacement of animal use with simulators and other advanced teaching
and training methods combines the best education, the best ethics,
and the best use of resources.”
 Three surgery classes at the UTHSCSA—a senior surgery honors
course, a surgery internship readiness elective, and a third-year
surgery clerkship in general surgery at Wilford Hall Hospital—had
used live animals in exercises meant 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
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 UTHSCSA 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 heart
beats, 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. The school also has a state-of-the-art
visualization and simulation center.
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 using simulation as
a teaching tool.
UTHSCSA's and Georgetown’s recent decisions to eliminate 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. This initiative could change the landscape
of medical school and surgery residency curricula for the better.
Unfortunately, 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. Voice your opinion today and help
encourage these schools to adopt more compassionate and effective
teaching and research methods.
PCRM Online,
August 2006
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