At Drexel University College of Medicine, simulation centers offer medical students the chance to work in a realistic patient care environment.

The simulation centers encourage interactive curriculum development, teaching and assessment of skills for medical students as well as health care students including therapists, nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists and physicians in both undergraduate and graduate medical education.

The simulation centers feature life-like computer controlled robotic manikins with palpable pulses, and audible heart and lung sounds. The manikins breathe and blink, respond to injected drugs, can be intubated and defibrillated, and much more. The "patient" can even speak.

All functions are managed by technicians in nearby control rooms and video-taped for students and faculty to review in follow-up sessions. A task-training room at each center also houses individual stations such as venipuncture, suturing or birthing simulation training.

The College of Medicine collaborates with Drexel University's schools of engineering and media design to continually improve the simulation centers through research and development of new technologies.

Simulation technology is an important tool for our medical students studying at the College of Medicine's Queen Lane campus, in Philadelphia, and at the College of Medicine at Tower Health campus in West Reading.

About the Queen Lane Campus Independence Blue Cross Medical Simulation Center

The Queen Lane campus is home to the Independence Blue Cross Medical Simulation Center, a state-of-the-art facility with over 10,000 square feet of learning and teaching space. The center features rooms for structured practice, debriefing and skills assessment sessions.

The simulation center's three patient rooms and one operating room are equipped with functioning beds, gas rails and sinks, and are configured to simulate patient care in the hospital setting.

The simulation center is located at Drexel University College of Medicine at the Queen Lane Campus in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia.
2900 W. Queen Lane
Room 203, K Wing
Philadelphia, PA 19129

The director of the simulation center, Kathleen Ryan MD, FACP, is also a faculty member of the Department of Medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine.

For more information about the simulation center, please visit https://webcampus.med.drexel.edu/simcenter/default.html.

To contact the simulation center, please complete our contact us form.

Simulation Center at the West Reading Campus

As on the Queen Lane campus, the Simulation Lab at West Reading’s patient rooms are home to computer-controlled robotic manikins. The manikins’ vital signs and responses to “treatment” are managed by technicians. Sim Lab sessions are filmed for student and faculty review and skills assessment. Manikins can help instructors and students simulate scenarios like a live birth or bout of high blood pressure.

Take a tour of the Sim Lab:

The simulation center is located at Drexel University College of Medicine at Tower Health in West Reading.
50 Innovation Way
Room 418, Fourth Floor
Wyomissing, PA 19610

John Repasch is the director of standardized patient, clinical skills and simulation at Drexel University College of Medicine at Tower Health. Learn more about John Repasch or contact him here.