National Physicians Group Celebrates St. Elizabeth for Replacing Animals in Surgeon Training

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio—A national medical ethics group is praising St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital for replacing live animals in its surgeon training program just months after hundreds of the group’s physician members signed a letter urging the hospital to modernize. The nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine received confirmation of the change earlier this month from the hospital’s parent company Mercy Health. The Physicians Committee is now urging the University of Cincinnati to follow suit.

Previously, St. Elizabeth’s general surgery residents were sent to Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown to practice more than 30 procedures on live pigs, including making incisions into the animals’ necks, chests, and abdomens to insert surgical tools and to remove the spleen, kidneys, and gallbladder. Any surviving animals were killed after the training sessions.

John Luellen, MD, Mercy Health’s state president for Ohio, wrote that the hospital “recently finalized our curriculum update for the new academic year and can share [that] the program in Youngstown no longer uses live animals for surgical training, consistent with our other general surgery residency programs across the state.”

In March, 646 physicians wrote to St. Elizabeth to urge it to “modernize and humanize” its medical training. Now, the hospital’s surgery residency will do just that, joining 226 other medical centers across the U.S. and Canada—including the Cleveland Clinic, Stanford, Yale, and the Mayo Clinic—in adopting animal-free, human-relevant training methods.

“We are grateful that St. Elizabeth Hospital carefully considered how best to train its surgeons and made this decision,” said John Pippin, MD, FACC, director of academic affairs at the Physicians Committee. “We hope the University of Cincinnati will do the same and help modernize training throughout the state.”

Scientific studies show that nonanimal methods—such as human-patient simulators and cadavers—are equally or more effective for teaching surgical skills. A 2020 U.S. military study found that trainees using advanced surgical simulators showed significant improvements in both response times and reduced medical errors. Additionally, research has demonstrated that simulators and human cadavers offer comparable or superior results to animal-based training in building surgical competence, boosting confidence, and preparing residents for high-stress environments.

To speak with Dr. Pippin, please contact Reina Pohl at 202-527-7326 or rpohl [at] pcrm.org (rpohl[at]pcrm[dot]org).