State-Of-The-Art OHSU Simulator May Help Win $11 Billion Defense Contract

Published January 18, 2015 at 7:00 AM PST

OHSU recently opened a new state-of-the-art emergency room simulator.

It uses a mannequin patient to reproduce biological symptoms. It also records medical data, like heartbeat and blood pressure, which will then automatically go into the medical record.

Executives from IBM and electronic health records company Epic, came to Portland to check out the simulator.

Keith Salzman with IBM, says it could help them win an $11 billion dollar contract with the Defense Department: "We've come here because OHSU has taken their system Epic and created this simulation lab where they can really work out the bugs," he said.

The Defense Department currently has several different records systems that don't communicate well with each other. So it wants a new system.

The Affordable Care Act is pushing the entire medical industry to computerize - with the aim of reducing medical mistakes and cutting costs.

<p>A mannequin patient which reproduces biological symptoms at OHSU's new emergency room simulator.</p> — A mannequin patient which reproduces biological symptoms at OHSU's new emergency room simulator.

<p>OHSU's new state-of-the-art emergency room simulator records medical data, like heartbeat and blood pressure, which will then automatically go into the medical record.</p> — OHSU's new state-of-the-art emergency room simulator records medical data, like heartbeat and blood pressure, which will then automatically go into the medical record.