John Pippin, M.D.,
F.A.C.C., Physicians Committee
June 2018
The training program at Western Michigan involved cutting the skin and ligament of a pig’s eye, making incisions to insert tubes and needles into the animal’s throat and chest, and splitting open the breastbone in order to access the heart.
I am excited to share some great news with you today: Western Michigan
University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine has ended the use of pigs
for training future emergency medicine doctors!
Last June, I reached out to Western Michigan officials to urge them to adopt
nonanimal methods for training emergency medicine residents. I shared
information on human-relevant training methods such as medical simulators,
and we discussed them. At that time, the training program at Western
Michigan involved cutting the skin and ligament of a pig’s eye, making
incisions to insert tubes and needles into the animal’s throat and chest,
and splitting open the breastbone in order to access the heart.
Then, last month, Western Michigan confirmed that they no longer use live
animals.
With your support, we have convinced Western Michigan to replace animal use. Currently, 95 percent (214 of 226) of surveyed emergency medicine programs in the United States and Canada use only nonanimal methods.
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