Photo Credit: BONNIE ARBITTIER / RIVARD REPORT

The Henry B. González Convention Center in San Antonio, TX hosted over 4000 participants who gathered from around the world to view the latest advancements in healthcare patient simulators. The occasion that brought them together was the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH), a five-day conference dedicated to innovation and best practices in healthcare simulation.   

The conference is hosted every year by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH). SSH is an organization dedicated to reducing medical errors and improving the quality of care patients receive through training healthcare professionals with simulation.

This year, IMSH hosted 250 presenters who displayed medical simulators that could bleed, had realistic heart rates, could respond to medications and lifesaving procedures, among a slew of other features according to Rivard Report health and bioscience reporter Roseanna Garza. 

Simulation is an important teaching tool used by several hospitals and medical schools around the world. Advances in technology and their level of realism have made simulators a bigger part of the training healthcare students and staff receive.

Among the many patient simulators on display were Gaumard’s Victoria and Pediatric HAL. Both are high-fidelity simulators capable of displaying a variety of medical conditions, including those rare emergency events that learners might never encounter during regular clinical hours. Learners can interact with, diagnose, and even administer treatment to the simulators as they would with a real patient.

Working on a simulated patient allows healthcare professionals to hone their skills and develop muscle memory without the risk of harming a real patient. As Keary Miller, president of Innovative Training Solutions explains, “[Patient simulators] provide the opportunity for…experiential learning…You learn how to get down in the dirt and interact with the body, and really get to put your knowledge to the test.”

During a simulation event, the participants gain experience working through different medical cases. As Miller points out: “You can’t necessarily teach someone to remain calm in a situation they have never experienced. [Patient simulators] help people develop their skills, and understand what they are capable of”.

Additionally, with a growing shortage of clinical training sites making it increasingly difficult for learners to complete clinical hours, the U.S. is facing substantial shortages in the healthcare workforce. However, these clinical hours can be replaced with simulation-based training. Thus, medical schools and teaching hospitals can ensure their learners have no gaps in their education, and they are truly ready to treat real patients.  

To read the full article, please visit the Rivard Report website.

To learn more about Victoria, Pediatric HAL, or any of Gaumard’s other patient simulators, please visit the GAUMARD WEBSITE.