[February 09, 2010] Orlando VA hospital will be national hub for medical simulation training Tweet Feb 09, 2010 (The Orlando Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Orlando will be home to a national medical simulation training center for the Department of Veterans Affairs, adding more jobs and further advancing Central Florida's reputation as a major biotech destination, U.S. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas announced this morning. The center will be housed in the new Orlando Veterans Administration Medical Center at Lake Nona's emerging "medical city," which is scheduled to open in 2012. It will bring physicians and other medical professionals from throughout the country to train in the latest medical simulation technology such as surgical robotics and simulated patients. Its Lake Nona location will also allow the center to collaborate with other facilities at medical city including University of Central Florida's College of Medicine, the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and Nemours Children's Hospital. "This is exciting news for Central Florida because it allows us to have a high technology model for medical simulation systems right in our own backyard," said Kosmas, D- New Smyrna Beach. "This is a coveted achievement because it will bring people and resources to an already established medical simulation industry here." The center, which will be housed in a 35,000 square-foot facility inside the new VA Medical Center, will result in the initial creation of 12 jobs that will pay between $75,000 and $150,000. It will provide training for physicians, nurses and other medical professionals from the VA system's 162 sites as well as medical students. The center "will create synergy for partnerships in medical simulation," said UCF College of Medicine dean Deborah German, who attended the announcement at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute. "Our students, physicians and scientists will benefit in their work. The benefits to our community will be beyond measure," she said. The VA has agreements with 108 universities throughout the country to provide medical training to about 85,000 students, who are rotated through the country's VA hospitals, said Tim Liezert, medical director of the Orlando VA Medical Center. "This will attract to Central Florida not only the best and the brightest of our medical professionals, but also medical students," he said. Fernando Quintero can be reached at [email protected] or 407-650-6333. To see more of The Orlando Sentinel or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.OrlandoSentinel.com. Copyright (c) 2010, The Orlando Sentinel, Fla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]