From: "John Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C., Physicians Committee" <
info@pcrm.org>
Date: Dec 12, 2014 8:36 AM
Subject: Help Us Stop the Use of Animals at the UT College of Medicine Chattanooga
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Human-based methods such as simulators provide equivalent or superior training compared to the use of animals.
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Dear Ms. Marshall,
This week, Tennessee doctors joined the Physicians Committee in asking the University of Tennessee College of Medicine Chattanooga (UTCOMC) to end the use of live animals for surgical training. The school uses pigs to teach surgical skills despite the widespread availability of nonanimal training methods. Jane Gumnick, M.D., was on-site to deliver petitions we collected from 365 Tennessee physicians to the college's administration.
Please support our efforts by contacting the College of Medicine dean David C. Seaberg, M.D., and ask him to end this practice.
At the university, students practice surgical procedures on live animals as a part of their third- or fourth-year surgery clerkship. This training involves practicing suturing and knot-tying skills, making incisions into the abdomens of pigs to insert long, thin tubes with lightened cameras known as endoscopes, and inserting surgical instruments to practice procedures. At the end of each session, the animals are killed. All of these procedures are routinely taught at other medical schools using purpose-designed human simulators.
Ninety-eight percent of the 188 accredited medical schools in the United States and Canada use only human-relevant methods for student surgical training. Studies have documented that nonanimal methods provide equivalent or superior training compared to the use of animals. In fact, UTCOMC already has a state-of-the-art Clinical Skills and Simulation Center that could immediately replace the use of animal with human-based medical simulation.
Please take action and tell Dr. Seaberg to end the use of animals for surgical training at UTCOMC because Chattanooga deserves better.
Sincerely,
John J. Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C.
Director of Academic Affairs
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Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine • 5100 Wisconsin Ave., N.W. • Suite 400 • Washington, D.C. 20016
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