Four people affiliated with UNC-Chapel Hill applied for a patent for a modular staged simulator and process of simulating medical trauma, according to a filing Thursday with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The patent is for an invention directed to a modular staged simulator and a process of simulating medical trauma and maladies for the purpose of training or certifying individuals, including medical professionals.

Richard Feins, Andrew W. Grubbs, Alexander Grubbs and Matthew Dedmon filed the patent in July.

Feins is a professor of surgery and medical director of perioperative services at UNC Hospitals. He was principal investigator of an eight-institution research study funded by AHRQ aimed at finding out whether simulation training for cardiothoracic surgery resident physicians can help improve patient safety.

Feins is also the co-founder and scientific advisor of KindHeart Inc., a Chapel Hill-based company whose goal is to provide realistic demonstration environments for abdominal, thoracic and cardiac surgical procedures. He received his M.D. from the University of Vermont College of Medicine.

Andrew Grubbs is the co-founder and president of KindHeart.

In 2011, KindHeart developed technology for a complete cardiac surgery simulation system that made a real pig heart behave like a human heart during open-heart surgery.

Dedmon received his M.D. from UNC School of Medicine in 2011. He was a Loyalty Fund Scholar at UNC.

Alexander Grubbs has previously applied for patents with Andrew Grubbs, Dedmon and Fein.