Ventilatory control (Ventrol) simulation for education.

An educational microcomputer-based simulation of respiratory control has been developed. The program contains three major sections: tutorial, stimulation, and unknown testing. The tutorial section provides a brief discussion of the major factors involved in respiratory control. The simulation section provides a menu of variables to demonstrate the effects of altering inspired gases, changing compliance or airway resistance, metabolic acidosis, neural activity, and lesions (including vagotomy) or exercise. The last section of the program allows students to test their understanding of abnormal respiratory and blood gas values. The program has been used as a problem-solving exercise in a medical physiology course. Student groups were assigned to a microcomputer and given a specific problem during a regularly scheduled laboratory period. The students collected data using the program, analyzed and graphed or tabulated the results, and presented their findings in a minisymposium format to their fellow students. This approach has proven valuable and provides a number of pedagogical benefits that are lacking in a lecture-based basic science curriculum.