Medical Simulation Conference Brings Hollywood Special Effects to Orlando

The 2023 International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) brought Hollywood-level special effects, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, actors and robots to the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, widely recognized as the modeling and simulation capital of the world. The conference’s exhibit hall housed millions of dollars of technology from over 140 companies, attracting a record-breaking 4,200 attendees. "Whether it be simulation through Disney, whether it be simulation through NASA … we often say [Orlando] is probably the best-kept secret out there," said Jarrod Young, one of the meeting’s planning team co-chairs.

The Evolution of Medical Training

When Dr. Haru Okuda trained as an emergency physician over two decades ago, he learned to perform procedures for the first time by practicing on patients. "There were so many instances when I was a resident in training and a medical student that I was terrified. I felt like I was causing harm," said Okuda, now president of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. Okuda and other researchers, doctors and leaders in simulation have worked since then to ensure that the next generation of medical professionals isn’t using patients as test subjects. They have developed increasingly realistic clinical simulators for students to try out before they encounter a real life-or-death scenario.

UCF Clinical Skills and Simulation Center

The UCFCOM Clinical Skills and Simulation Center’s mission is to provide a safe learning environment for the undergraduate medical curriculum to teach and assess students in patient-centered care. The 7,500 square foot state-of-the-art Clinical Skills and Simulation Center provides a variety of clinical settings for students to gain hands-on experience in order to learn and practice essential skills. The center achieves this by offering well-trained Standardized Patients and staff, and state-of-the-art simulation equipment.

Key features of the center include:

• Sixteen exam rooms that are set up with the medical equipment that you would find in any standard exam room.
• All rooms are video compatible and have an instructor’s one-way glass viewing station.
• The center serves an average of three hundred medical students on a weekly basis throughout the academic year.
• Equipped with training simulators and medical mannequins, the center is used to teach clinical assessment and intervention skills, such as heart, lung, and bowel sounds, venipuncture and catheterization.

Standardized Patient Program

The Clinical Skills and Simulation Center Standardized Patient program currently employs over one hundred Standardized Patients. These include specialized roles such as:

• Physical Exam Teaching Associates (PETAs)
• Genitourinary Teaching Associates (GTAs)
• Male Urological Teaching Associates (MUTAs)

Simulation and Training Overview

The following table summarizes the scope of simulation resources and the recent international conference:

Additionally, the center provides space exclusively for research and development in virtual simulation technology. The Clinical Skills and Simulation Center will serve as a nidus for a comprehensive health sciences simulation program for the UCF-Lake Nona complex.