Clinical simulation for a university that needs more hands-on training and less dependence on imported solutions

Problem: trauma training requires accessible, realistic repetition

The problem was improving training for pelvic sling placement without depending on imported trauma task trainers that typically cost between 2,000 and 3,400 U.S. dollars.

In initial trauma management, placing a pelvic sling or pelvic binder is not a skill that should live only in theory. Students need to identify anatomical references, practice the sequence of placement, correct mistakes, and repeat the procedure until the movement becomes clear. For a university, that repetition requires available equipment, resistance to frequent use, and a cost structure that allows the simulator to enter the classroom without being treated as a scarce object.

The difficulty was not simply finding a training object. The challenge was building a tool that responded to a specific teaching objective: practicing correct pelvic sling positioning in a medical training setting, with enough fidelity to guide the technique and enough simplicity to be used across several classes. In Guatemala and Central America, importing trauma trainers can leave programs with few available units or little flexibility to adapt the tool to the way they teach.

There was also a second training context: prehospital emergency response. The tenth Company of the Benemerito Cuerpo Voluntario de Bomberos de Guatemala, located across from Roosevelt Hospital in Guatemala City, represents an environment where practice must be direct, useful, and compatible with the reality of teams that respond to emergencies. In that type of training, a solution that is too delicate, expensive, or hard to replace limits how often it can be used.

Solution: a medical simulator developed with local clinical criteria

The solution was to design and manufacture a low-cost pelvic sling positioning simulator, developed together with doctors who obtained resources from the Intuitive Foundation, the philanthropic foundation of Intuitive Surgical in the United States.

The project moved from clinical brief to delivery over a 6-month period. That timeline made it possible to translate a medical need into a concrete task trainer: a device for practicing pelvic sling placement in trauma scenarios. Digital Strings worked from the function the simulator had to serve, not from a generic copy of an existing product. The priority was for the student to practice the correct movement, for the instructor to observe and correct, and for the institution to use the tool repeatedly.

Development with doctors was central because the value of the simulator depended on clinical and teaching decisions, not only fabrication. The brief defined what had to be trained, what level of detail was sufficient, and which elements could be simplified to keep the cost low without losing teaching value. That conversation focused the design on pelvic sling positioning, a specific skill within trauma management, instead of producing a broad, expensive manikin with less procedural focus.

Local production also made cost control possible. Each unit could be produced for less than 100 U.S. dollars, a meaningful difference compared with imported trauma task trainers that typically cost between 2,000 and 3,400 dollars. That does not replace formal academic evaluation, but it does explain why the project made sense for a program that needed broader access to practice without buying high-cost imported equipment.

Result: more practice with a task trainer produced for less than 100 dollars

The result was a functional simulator tested in several classes at a private university in Guatemala and by the tenth Company of the Benemerito Cuerpo Voluntario de Bomberos de Guatemala.

For the university, the value was having a tool that could enter the classroom as practical support for a specific skill. Instead of depending only on explanation, demonstration, or limited access to imported equipment, students could interact with a simulator designed around the procedure. This page does not publish the university name for confidentiality, but it does make the type of context clear: private medical education in Guatemala with a need to strengthen clinical practice.

For the volunteer firefighters, the value was different but complementary. The tenth Company, located across from Roosevelt Hospital in Guatemala City, operates in an environment where trauma training has a direct relationship with prehospital care. Testing the simulator there helped bring the tool beyond the university classroom and closer to a team that needs concrete, repeatable practice grounded in emergency response situations.

The economic result was also relevant. Producing each unit for less than 100 U.S. dollars opened a local alternative to imported trauma trainers that usually sit between 2,000 and 3,400 dollars. This is not presented as a universal replacement for every commercial simulator. It is a specific response to a specific need: practicing pelvic sling positioning with an accessible resource, manufactured locally, and designed with medical input.

The case shows how medical simulation can be more useful when it starts from the clinical and educational problem, not from a catalog. With real context data, a clear training objective, and local production, Digital Strings converted a trauma training need into a practical tool for university classes and prehospital training in Guatemala.