Open forum: Military should stop using live animals to train medical students

Live animals are used in at least three USUHS medical student courses. But a DOD directive renewed in 2005 explicitly mandates that alternatives to the use of animals be implemented if they exist. There are widely accepted and validated non-animal teaching tools used in the finest medical schools throughout the country that could be used in each of these USUHS labs. The USUHS leadership and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee are aware of these alternatives, and are violating DOD regulations by refusing to implement them.

The USUHS course in medical ethics does not include a section regarding use of live animals, so there is no opportunity for the students to engage in this important ethical issue.

Only 10 out of 154 allopathic and osteopathic medical schools in the United States still offer live animal labs. Most schools have done away with animal labs because training on live animals is educationally and ethically unjustifiable when excellent non-animal methods are available, such as sophisticated mannequins with internal technology that reproduces the responses of humans to various interventions and procedures.

Fortunately, USUHS has access to a great variety of such high-tech teaching tools that simulate human physiology and anatomy through its very own National Capital Area Medical Simulation Center (NCAMSC), of which school officials are admittedly proud. The center has a great variety of sophisticated simulation technologies available that allow for medical personnel to practice their skills over and over without harming animals or patients.

Some USUHS students participate in a live ‘‘pig lab” prior to their surgery rotation as third-year medical students. These medical students can learn technical and teamwork skills by practicing on suturing and laparoscopy trainers and by using other simulation-based methods prior to their mentored operating room experiences — just like other medical students across the country.

USUHS is one of just five medical schools in the United States that still continue to use live animals to teach surgery skills. Recognizing that there are superior methods from educational and ethical perspectives, at least six U.S. medical schools have discontinued live animal surgery labs since 2006.

The American College of Surgeons no longer uses live animals in any of its own educational programs or training exercises. It also established a new accreditation program that does not include live animal use in any of its guidelines. Additionally, in 2007, the American Medical Student Association passed a resolution strongly encouraging the replacement of live animal laboratories with non-animal alternatives in medical student education.

USUHS uses simulators and live ferrets for pediatric intubation training before the third-year pediatric rotation. But almost every other medical school in the country uses only simulators in addition to clinical experiences. BabySim, which is available at NCAMSC, allows students to perform infant CPR, airway management, and other procedures on a human-based model.

There are educationally equivalent or superior humane teaching methods for the courses at USUHS that use live animals. Replacement of animals with these methods would maintain the excellence in training our military doctors receive while advancing USUHS to the current standard of medical education in the United States.

USUHS should expend its funds on the best that medical education has to offer — and in the year 2008 that means training methods that don’t involve animals. With all the superb and sophisticated simulation-based training tools available to USUHS through its medical simulation center, there is simply no reason for the school to continue these outdated and unethical live animal laboratories.

Marion Balsam, Bethesda

The writer is a pediatrician and was an active duty military doctor for 25 years. A decorated rear admiral, she is now retired from the U.S. Navy Medical Corps.