Bristol-based medical simulator company Limbs & Things has launched the most ambitious and complex product in its 30-year history – a device to help medical practitioners better recognise and diagnose more than 30 chronic conditions and life-threatening emergencies
Called CaRE (Cardiovascular & Respiratory Examination), the ground-breaking simulator, pictured, is set to revolutionise medical training across the globe. 
CaRE is the first product of its kind anywhere in the world to synchronise heart and lung sounds and movement, with an anatomically correct adult torso model designed to help medical trainees practice cardiovascular and respiratory examinations.
The Limbs & Things team spent four years and more than 50,000 hours on the research and development of CaRE, combining various technologies in new ways to make it as lifelike as possible.
With authentic pulses, chest movement, heart beats and murmurs, CaRE realistically replicates more than 30 different clinical cases – from conditions such as pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and atrial fibrillation, to potentially life-threatening emergencies such as pneumothorax (collapsed lung) and heart failure. 
It can also mimic the signs of serious conditions such as sepsis – which presents as a high heart and breathing rate – along with the sensation of a physical pulse and chest movement, allowing learners to recognise the signs as if it were a real patient.
It is supported by an app that offers customisable lesson plans, assessments and training in individual skills.
CaRE has been rigorously tested for both realism and reliability in the UK and the US. The usability has been tested through extensive UK medical student feedback alongside Limbs & Things’ standard evaluation process.
The simplicity of the user interface and usability is one of the major features of CaRE that separates it from other trainers in the marketplace that offer similar skills.
Limbs & Things commercial director Anne Allin said: “It’s taken a significant amount of time and investment to develop this complex, novel technology that we believe will revolutionise the way trainees practice and learn these respiratory and cardiovascular examination skills.
“Before now, a medical trainee would usually go through all levels of training without ever experiencing these serious conditions in real life practice, usually limited to practicing on fellow students or more rudimentary heart or lung models.
“We know from working with medical communities around the world, this was a product missing in the medical training portfolio.
“We hope that it will be a game-changer in supporting medics to accurately recognise and diagnose a huge range of serious and sometimes life-threatening conditions.”
St Philips-based Limbs & Things was founded in 1990 by medical illustrator Margot Cooper and now employs 230 people producing a range of medical simulators.
The Queen’s Award-winning firm’s medical training products range from ‘arms’ with mock blood systems and birthing simulators and are used by specialists around the globe to address medical scenarios from routine examinations to emergency interventions.
While its products are lifesize models of parts of the human body, the firm is also moving into the use of technology to add value to the training experience.
Last year it acquired Edinburgh-based eoSurgical, a market leader in the use of technology and self-directed learning in laparoscopic surgery.
