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Photo: LiveScience |
Noelle was born in Afghanistan, California, and numerous locations in between. She is a lifelike pregnant robot that is increasingly being used in medical schools and hospital obstetrics departments.
This grayish-yellow mannequin, which is life-sized, is in high demand as the medical field rapidly shifts away from traditional teaching methods—centuries-old practices involving patients or guinea pigs—toward high-tech simulation techniques. The simple reason is: it is better to make mistakes on a $20,000 robot than on a living patient.
The Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States, estimates that approximately 98,000 patients die each year due to preventable medical errors.
“We are trying to eliminate some of the mistakes,” said Dr. Paul Preston, an anesthesiologist at Kaiser Permanente and the architect of the hospital’s four-year maternity care training program, in which Noelle plays a central role.
Noelle, a product of Gaumard Scientific based in Miami, is used in most of Kaiser’s 30 hospitals worldwide, with others awaiting their turn.
To date, many other companies have created lifelike mannequins for medical training in emergency situations, but Noelle appears to be the only high-tech model designed specifically for pregnancy training.
Noelle prototypes range in price from $3,200 (basic model) to $20,000 for the computerized version that provides the best simulation of childbirth. “She” can be programmed for various applications and different cervical dilation patterns. Noelle is capable of laboring for hours and delivering a baby or suddenly giving birth in just minutes.
The “baby” is a plastic doll that can change color, from healthy pink to lethal blue due to lack of oxygen. It will emit vital signs when connected to a monitor. The computerized mannequin can also produce realistic pulse rates and can urinate or breathe.
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