Advanced Trauma Life Support laboratory: pilot implementation and evaluation.

Selected invasive diagnostic and therapeutic techniques were taught to emergency physicians through modular Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) animal laboratory courses presented in the fall of 1977. Thirty-seven emergency physicians participated in the four pilot ATLS laboratories in which the average trainee:animal:instructor ratio was 2:1:0.75. The animals consisted of 15 large baboons and five large rhesus monkeys. Cost accounting on these pilot ATLS courses revealed that the total program cost was $15,581.86, for an average of $3,895.46 per trauma laboratory course and $421.13 per emergency physician trained. The ATLS concept is ready for development into a nationally-standarized ATLS series.