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Smith & Nephew Takes Product Training to Surgeons Via High-Tech Trailer

Posted on: Thursday, 15 September 2005, 15:01 CDT

Sep. 15--Since not all surgeons have time to come to them, Smith & Nephew Orthopaedics has decided to take product training to the surgeons -- in the form of an 80,000-pound, high-tech trailer.

The Mobilab Training Center includes a small conference room and a wet lab area with six surgical tables, where 24 surgeons at a time can train to use the newest Smith & Nephew products and procedures.

"Doctors protect their time, they are careful about the time they spend away from the hospital," said Chip Colonna, vice president of brand marketing for Smith & Nephew Orthopaedics. "Instead of spending three or four days at one of our training sites, we can provide training in the hospital parking lot."

In addition to surgeons, residents, nurses, physician's assistants and scrub technicians can be trained in the lab.

The lab leaves Memphis Sunday for its first training stop in Charlotte, N.C., where Smith & Nephew will be offering surgeons courses and demonstrations in reconstructive procedures and trauma products.

It is scheduled to stop in 48 cities before the end of 2006.

Mobile training labs have become increasingly commonplace in the medical device industry, as the industry rapidly develops new techniques and products that require hours of surgeon training.

The labs enable companies to reach more surgeons and their support staff, while saving the doctors, nurses and technicians time.

The Smith & Nephew lab, which took about a year and a half to complete, is set up not only for demos on plastic bones, but for training using cadavers.

The 53-foot expandable trailer was designed with surgeons' needs in mind and includes motorized tables and monitor stations at each table, said Nancy Cranford, the Mobilab meeting planner. Cranford will spend the next year traveling with the laboratory.

A second truck will travel with the lab, carrying all instrumentation and supplies.

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.

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SNN,

Source: The Commercial Appeal

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