The Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation & Education (MITIESM) is a comprehensive, state-of-the-art education and research center at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas.
It was created for physicians who wish to acquire new procedural skills and integrate new technologies into their practices. The first facility of its kind, MITIE now encompasses 35,000 square feet of research space dedicated to procedural skills acquisition and the development of image-guided technology, medical robotics and new procedural techniques.
MITIE is comprised of three core components:
A virtual hospital for recreating high-risk patient care environments
A procedural skills lab for hands-on training with state-of-the-art models
A suite of operating rooms for image-guided procedure research, robotic surgery and technology development
MITIE is being developed in two stages:
The first is housed on the second floor of a wing of the Methodist Hospital called the West Pavilion. It is 17,000 square feet in size and houses the three main elements of the institution - a virtual hospital, procedural training laboratory, and research operating room. The West Pavilion MITIE will be the temporary home for the Institute until construction on the permanent home is completed in 2010. At that time, MITIE will be moved to a 35,000 square foot space encompassing the entire fifth floor of the newly constructed Methodist Hospital Research Institute (TMHRI).
The MITIE project also includes a 1,000 square foot Inanimate Skills Laboratory (ISL) - an extension of the Virtual Hospital - that supports medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty who work and train at Methodist. It is located in the heart of the hospital to foster around-the-clock availability. A full-time surgical educator runs the ISL and, with the guidance of physician champions, builds educational programs targeted toward trainees of all levels. These programs are proficiency based so that, once introduced to the exercise, the trainee can improve with self-directed practice fostered by expert coaching and well defined milestones for required progression. The MITIE ISL currently offers 33 training modules.
