Click here to view this newscast.

Ballard Company Helps Doctors & Hollywood

Susan West, Q13 FOX News

March 6, 2007

Scalpels, blood, ultrasound machines and needles. You'd think you're in a hospital, but you're not. You're actually at a cutting edge company in Ballard, where fake body parts are a common sight.

Chris Toly is the CEO of Simulab. He says "Simulab designs, manufactures and sells high fidelity, surgical simulation models." In other words, they make fake bodies.

Simulab employs about 50 people, making fake bodies for medical training around the world, including Harborview and the University of Washington. Toly says "for us to come to work and provide a tool that's going to help save someone's life, it makes it all really worthwhile, as far as the big picture." Or, on the big screen. One of their simulation devices unexpectedly appeared on a hot TV show set in Seattle. Toly says "we didn't actually know that it was going on. They got our simulators from USC and did the practice. And of course the next day, people in the office were all excited saying, we were on Grey's Anatomy!"

Simulab is also a hit in the medical world. Thousands of trainees, including military, use "TraumaMan", which has fake blood, lungs and tissue. It looks traumatically real, but again, it's all fake. "TraumaMan" is the only product recognized by the world's largest surgical society, as an alternative to using live animals or human cadavers. "TraumaMan" costs about $23,000 and can be used over and over, since the pieces are replaceable.

There's also "CentraLineMan", which is used by people learning how to put catheters in people's necks. It responds to ultrasound and has a pulse.

Simulab also makes demonstration models, so that doctors can show their patients what type of implants they're getting.

Those are just a few of the fake body parts Simulab creates. So next time you have surgery, one of those guys may have helped your doctors prepare.

Copyright © 2007, KCPQ