Letter to Albany Medical Center about Using Live Pigs for Trauma Training - 14 Nov 2008

14 November 2008

James J. Barba, President and CEO
Albany Medical Center
43 New Scotland Avenue, Mail Code 114
Albany, NY 12208

Dear President Barba:

We are residents of New York State who live only 30 miles south of Albany; but we had no idea that Albany Medical Center still utilizes pigs in Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) courses.

Please see to it that pigs are replaced by a surgical simulator such as Simulab's TraumaMan or SimMan. These are approved by the American College of Surgeons, the ATLS oversight body. A New England Journal of Medicine article describes inanimate models as “safe, reproducible, portable, readily available, and cost- effective.”

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Frank L. Hoffman

Mary T. Hoffman

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