MedaPhor supplies six more units to University of Derby

Advanced ultrasound skills training simulator provider MedaPhor Group announced on Thursday that the University of Derby has purchased an additional six ScanTrainer ultrasound simulators for its new Ultrasound Simulation Suite, which it said will act as a learning centre for students on the University's ultrasound master's degree courses.

The AIM-traded company said the university had already purchased two ScanTrainer systems in 2014 as part of a flexible learning environment for ultrasound students looking to practice scanning both in and out of class time.

Since then, the university's postgraduate course offering has expanded and now includes a direct entry master's programme designed specifically to fast-track students from non-clinical backgrounds into a sonography career and aid the healthcare industry's increasing skills shortage, MedaPhor’s board explained.

The new learning facility opened on 26 September, and has been designed for the training needs of the university's expanding ultrasound student base.

It houses three transvaginal and three transabdominal systems, with a further two ScanTrainer systems also being used by students at the university's Chesterfield campus.

“The ScanTrainer system continues to be a game changer in how we approach sonographer training,” said University of Derby senior lecturer in medical ultrasound Heather Venables.

“Simulation is now a fully integrated part of our strategy for curriculum delivery and plays a key role in student support, particularly for pre-clinical ultrasound skills development.”

Iain Dunbar, head of sales at MedaPhor, explained that the ultrasound skills gap is an increasing challenge for hospitals, with the company seeing a growing response by UK universities such as Derby, Teesside and Cumbria who are helping to bridge the gap.

“[The universities] are doing so by creating ultrasound programmes that are taking the clinical pressure off the hospitals to train and moving this back into the educational environment where they can acquire hard-to-learn ultrasound skills in a patient-safe simulated environment.

“ScanTrainer enables them to offer a high standard of simulated learning that their students require before entering the clinical environment.”