PHACON visits the Interconnected Podcast

We had the pleasure of talking with Jourdan Saunders, a speech-language pathologist, about our Throat and Sinus models in the “Interconnected with Jourdan” podcast. Jourdan talked to our very own PHACON US representative Brandon Gehrmann about the advantages of having 3D-printed models of anatomically correct patients for medical students that want to practice surgical interventions on human structures. With his background in Orthopedics, Brandon highlights the need of artificial surgical models as he recollects his time in medical school, where he wished he had the convenience of practicing on human-like models during his own time, whenever he wanted to.

Likewise, Jourdan shares her experiences with the medical side of SLPs, as she recounts practicing throat endoscopic interventions on her peers, volunteering for each other. Brandon expresses his shock when he finds out that SLPs are mostly learned and practiced on volunteers, as he discovers that the main challenge of practicing endoscopic procedures on human volunteers is the risk of cross-contamination:

[…] Let’s talk about some challenges. And they’re like: well, cross-contaminations. Holy cow, cross-contamination. Everybody, somebody always gets sick. And I’m just like, what a liability. […] It [using artificial models] is just a no brainer to me. I mean, yes, you’ll still have to probably pass your final exam on a real person, but at least you’re not going to be cross-contaminated by the way. […] Our models allow for education to come anywhere at any time.

Jourdan and Brandon continue the interview by sharing how PHACON aided universities during the pandemic to facilitate remote learning. Brandon shares how with the PHACON Throat Trainer, for example, university classes could teach remotely while still assuring the physical aspect of learning; with PHACON helping change university courses to assure education anytime, in any place.

To hear more about Jourdan and Brandon’s conversation on PHACON, listen to “Interconnected with Jourdan” on Spotify or on YouTube. You can watch the interview here.

Thank you Jourdan for having us on!