Limbs & Things is a leading healthcare simulation manufacturer committed to improving patient outcomes by facilitating realistic learning experiences. Headquartered in Bristol, United Kingdom, Limbs and Things creates products that enable healthcare simulation educators to deliver curriculum requirements, bringing greater confidence and competence to healthcare professionals worldwide.
Products are researched, designed, and created in collaboration with clinicians and sold through an expanded network of over 70 distributors. With subsidiary offices in Australia and the United States, Limbs & Things has invested in research and development to find the latest materials and processes worldwide. The company stresses that this approach allows for products to be built in a clinically accurate way to enhance a learner’s education and simulation training.
In addition to improving patient outcomes through a realistic learning experience, Limbs & Things offers sales and customer service support from demonstration to aftercare. By providing a sense of availability and assistance, the company has built a level of trust across customers.
Proving trust and credibility, Limbs & Things now offers surgery simulation products used in Advanced Trauma Life Support courses and the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery examination. Several products are also recognized for their role in Objective Structured Clinical examinations.
HealthySimulation.comis dedicated to providing the latest @LimbsandThings1 news and resources from around the world. To follow along, sign up for our free medical simulation email newsletter, follow @HealthySim on Twitter and @HealthySim on Facebook, or follow our LinkedIn HealthySimulation.com Company Page!
Limbs & Things was founded in 1990 by Margot Cooper, a medical illustrator and active member of the Medical Artists Association of Great Britain and the European Association of Medical & Scientific Illustrators. Considering the emerging technologies, medicine, and social issues of the time, there was an increasing movement in the healthcare profession toward developing a new way of gaining clinical skills.
For this reason, Cooper sought to create a version of clinical education that moved away from cadavers and animals and toward a more cost-effective and repeatable training solution with patient safety in mind. She also wanted these solutions to be anatomically accurate so that learners could become more confident and competent in their abilities. Ultimately, Cooper set out to create clinical simulation task trainers for medical education.
By 1996, Cooper and the team at Limbs & Things were able to open an additional office in Australia. Later, a third office was opened in the United States. Since becoming an international company, the medical simulation manufacturer has incorporated global experience and knowledge into the business strategy. Models created by Limbs & Things are now evaluated and used by international specialists to ensure that the company is meeting and exceeding customer expectations.
In continuing to meet demand through investment, Limbs & Things has worked to constantly expand production. In 2018, the company took on the most ambitious project to date, the establishment of a new factory. The brand-new space, configured to the exact needs of Limbs & Things, meant manufacturing could be completed with better lead times to customers. At the same time, the company maintains strict quality control processes are in place.
Over a 25-year history, Limbs & Things has seen success through collaboration. Through partnering with organizations, the company has collected numerous awards. Examples of organization-partnered products include the Breastmilk Expression Trainers, made in collaboration with UNICEF, and the PROMPT Birthing Trainers, made alongside the PROMPT Foundation.
As the medical simulation world expands and evolves, Limbs & Things has taken task trainers around the world to a huge variety of medical simulation conferences, exhibitions, and shows, including those hosted by INACSL, SimGHOSTS, ASPIH, SESAM, or the International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSiH).
Limbs & Things Clinical Skills Trainer Products
Limbs & Things manufactures a number of products ranging from packs to task trainers and add-ons. The company also produces consumables and replacement parts. With over 550 products on the market, Limbs & Things uses categories to help customers find the tools that best meet their needs.
For example, product ranges include advanced practice, ATLS, ECOSystems, EMS, joint injection, nurse training, pediatric, pharmacy, physician assistant, postgraduate medicine, prompt flex, standardized patients, ultrasound range, and undergraduate medicine. Alternatively, categories include the areas of anesthesia, cardiology, dentistry, dermatology, EMS, emergency medicine, family medicine, general surgery, gynecology, internal medicine, laparoscopic surgery, obstetrics and midwifery, oncology, otology, paramedic science, pediatrics, radiology, rheumatology, sports medicine, trauma and orthopedic surgery, ultrasound and urology.
In terms of packs, Limbs & Things manufacturers Blue Concentrated Lubricant Packs for KK40. These packs contain lubricant for the colon-rectum tube of the Colonoscopy Training Model, and each contains 30 sachets of 50 ml. Additionally, Pink Lubricant Packs for Endoscope for KKM40 are available and include 30 X 20 ml sachets. Knotting tubes, two-colored cords, standard venipuncture arm veins, VALS ligation foams, catheterized foreskins, suprapubic bungs, chest drain ribs, and more come in pack-options as well.
As for task trainers, Limbs & Things manufactures male rectal examination trainers, male and female catheterization trainers, and standard catheterization trainers. The Standard Catheterization Trainer set contains both male and female catheterization modules and a single pelvic shell compatible with both units. At a cost-effective price, the set allows the trainees to learn urinary and suprapubic catheterization techniques and practice passing the catheter along the urethra into the bladder. Limbs & Things offers wearable breast models to train professionals how to conduct a breast examination and palpate nodules and masses.
Other task trainer products include a pediatric lumbar puncture model, an adult epidural and lumbar puncture model, an ultrasound epidural model, a joint injection trainer, an arterial insertion model, a SONON linear ultrasound imaging system, a flex birthing simulator, a midline perineal repair trainer, a standard breast examination model, a paracentesis trainer, and more.
Limbs & Things produces and distributes add-on products, including the PROMPT flex cervical cerclage module light, venipuncture arm harness, skin pad jig strap, BSS surgical simulation skills board, perineal repair illustration packs, and episiotomy illustration packs. The company also manufactures carry cases, standing position stands, postpartum hemorrhage kits, PROMPT flex lower legs (with knee joint interface lights), and rectal examination trainers with or without the perineum.
Adding to the realistic nature of the Limbs & Things training solutions, consumables offered can add to a more life-like experience. The tools available for this purpose include a concentrated venous blood starter pack, epidermis for three vein pad, water-based lubricant, SimMom and PROMPT birthing lubricant, simulated breast milk, double layer bowel, Milton sterilizing fluid, water system, mock blood, and synovial fluid. The concentrated venipuncture blood has been formulated to greatly improve the leak resistance of veins and makes 2.5 liters. The company also produces a stain-resistant form of simulated blood that can be purchased in one-gallon quantities.
Along with all of these products, replacement parts can be purchased and a downloadable catalog is available on the Limbs & Things website for a full review of company products.
New Products to Offers Realistic Training to Learners to Provide Better Care
Cervical Cerclage—Recent research in 2024 indicated that simulated practice with suturing the cervix to prevent premature labor improves consistency in technique and can improve patient care.
Augmented Reality Training (ART) mat – works with tablets and smartphones to show a 3D, 360-degree interactive view of internal anatomy by physically moving the device around a simulation manikin to allow learners to see what is occurring below the skin.