New Venture Helps Healthcare Professionals Learn New Data, Procedures, from Simulated Situations

We all think our memories of what happened are accurate. But, not always.

Now two medical education providers are joining together to launch SimView, a simulation tool, using combined video cameras, microphones and patient monitoring that captures video, audio, data logs, and patient responses, from training sessions to allow students to see what actually happened, not just what they think they remembered. The two companies are collaborating through a joint partnership, SimVentures.

HealthStream, Inc. a provider of learning and research solutions for the healthcare industry, and Laerdal Medical, a company which produces educational solutions for healthcare providers and educators, have launched this new resource, according to a HealthStream press release.

In a recent study of almost 1,000 health educators by SimVentures, “94 percent of those who use advanced patient simulators felt that ‘the ability to capture high quality simulation videos that run clearly and smoothly’ is important,” according to the press release. But only 38 percent of those capture “video” data.

“We are very happy to introduce our new debriefing system, SimView, to healthcare providers as they reap the added benefits of its integration with SimCenter, our comprehensive simulation management platform,” said Tor Morten Osmundsen, CEO, Laerdal Medical, in the press release. “Whether training one-on-one, in a group, or watching and learning from training sessions of others—both live and recorded, SimView provides everyone involved with an objective, data-rich way to get more from simulation-based training.”

SimView helps clinicians with “debriefing,” learning about medical situations and how to handle them.

Built from Laerdal's original Advanced Video System (AVS), the new debriefing system replays “scenarios where students worked with patient simulators—showing what actually occurred, as opposed to perceptions of what occurred,” according to the press release. SimView automatically pulls together data from up to four video cameras, a microphone, and event log patient monitoring from an advanced patient simulator, according to the press release.

Even more important, “instructors can then add comments to the log during a scenario and can easily manage the delivery, storage, and distribution of the debriefing files,” the press release states.

Other SimView capabilities include this creation of a single, time-indexed debriefing file for effective evaluation of patients, viewing of live events while also monitoring vital signs, furnishing explanatory notes in real-time, and evaluation capabilities via embedded tools and assessment templates, according to the press release.

Jeffrey C. Bauer, Ph.D., of ACS Healthcare Solutions, feels that simulation training will be used more and more as hospitals, struggling with budgets, hire fewer healthcare professionals, leading to what he calls a “dangerous shortage,” and patients increasingly reject “hands-on” care by students under the supervision of superiors.

Nursing instructors Carol Fowler Durham and Kathryn R. Alden report in their white paper that “simulation training is recommended as one strategy that can be used to prevent errors in the clinical setting.” 

They suggest that healthcare institutions use it especially when new technology is introduced.

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