Syndaver: A $95K animatronic cadaver that's replacing med-school corpses

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/10/18/med-school-pranks.html

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On paper it sounds great but i’m curious and cautious as to how well it performs, what it’s longevity is, etc. In reality it might be too much of a hassle to upkeep to be useful, but this seems pretty neat.

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like sneaking them into the alumni dinner in a tuxedo.

Wow, now that spells fun.

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Sorry, but can someone explain to me why a synthetic CADAVER needs to be “ANIMATRONIC”? Are we training doctors for the zombie apocalypse?

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I was just wondering that.

You know what animatronics do, by definition? They move. You know what cadavers don’t do…?

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The Cadaver Union is gonna hear about this!!!

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Please form a animatronic Chuck E. Cheese cadaver band that only plays Tool

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Pedantic correction needed, re: what percentage of a Syndaver is water.

From the Wired article: “…they’re 85 percent water…”

optional features from seizure-simulating limb actuators

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we train medical students for a future in which they will be working on live humans. Cadavers get the “human” part right, but 'live" is also a useful feature.

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You guys aren’t thinking big enough. Imagine them going into the spleen, and suddenly it sits up and does a song and dance about the spleen and its function. Tell me that won’t be a useful teaching tool. I certainly wouldn’t forget it.

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When the robot-zombies come for you, and they will…

A potentially useful addition to cadaver work, but not a replacement.

Part of the point of cadaver classes is to deliver the lesson that real bodies are much more varied than they appear in the textbooks.

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This is a great window into our fucked up, American medical system.

According to this documentary I saw once, “four years.”

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I can’t wait to see the home game version.

A SynDaver will last forever as long as he/she is properly cared for - the oldest parts we have on hand are the ones I made in grad school nearly 25 years ago.

Also, these are obviously not as complete as real bodies but they are getting better all the time. Our current 2G version is about to be replaced by the 3G (third generation) model which is much more sophisticated.

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A SynDaver is a synthetic person. The tissues were designed to mimic live tissue and the model in general was designed to stand in for a patient in medical device tests (I am a former medical device engineer) or surgical training.

One of the more obvious uses however is in anatomical training - hence the synthetic cadaver moniker.

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Simulation in every industry is about reducing risk and in medical simulation in particular about saving lives. It makes more sense to test medical devices on a good model instead of an innocent beagle and more sense to practice surgical procedures on a good model than grandma.

Better practice = better devices / surgeons.

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