IU School of Medicine no longer uses live cats

Pediatrics students will have to get used to practicing on fake
people rather than live animals.

The pediatrics residency program at the IU School of Medicine has eliminated the use of live cats to practice different techniques.

After overhauling the program and opening a new pediatrics facility, the School of Medicine is moving forward with the use of simulators in place of cats.

“It’s a joint operation between IU Health, IU School of Medicine and IU School of Nursing,” said Pam Perry, director of communications for the school of medicine. “I think it’s turning out to be a really great option for us to move into more sophisticated models.”

The IU School of Medicine was among 6 percent of programs still using live animals for intubation, which involves inserting plastic tubes into a cat or other animal’s mouth and windpipes. This was a common option for pediatric residency students. Intubation techniques are used on children to assist breathing.

“We opened a really fantastic, world-class simulator facility last year,” Perry said. “The decision at the school of medicine was, ‘Let’s just go ahead and have everybody use that facility, instead of also offering the option of using the cats.’”

Simulators, in place of live animals, have become a more popular trend in medical training.

Though they are more efficient and less controversial, they cost several thousand dollars. However, they provide realistic oral and nasal intubation training by the human-like model, complete with a tongue, epiglottis, pharynx and teeth.

“Simulators are really excellent, and we have a lot of people come to the facility just to see what they’re like,” Perry said. “They’re really very sophisticated — state of the art. It’s just a really excellent opportunity for teaching medical and nursing students on how to do procedures.”

William Pond, an IU School of Medicine graduate and anesthesiologist in Fort Wayne, has extensive experience using simulators.

“I think that the simulators are good enough now that most of the time they’re actually superior to using animals because you can program different scenarios into the simulator,” said Pond, who is also a clinical professor of pharmacology and biophysics for the IU School of Medicine.

Michael Arata, an IU School of Medicine graduate and orthopedics specialist in Fort Wayne, said he remembers using live animals during