Download the Medicine Meets Simulation White Paper to learn more about

• increasingly realistic simulators;
• the military’s use of medical simulation; and
• new tools to treat disorders such as PTSD and anxiety.

Medicine Meets Simulation

A distracted driver accelerates through a stop sign, knocking a rider off his bike. Soon an ambulance blares onto the scene. Medics rush out, check the man’s vital signs, and intubate him to allow him to breathe. They load him onto a stretcher and transport him to a nearby medical facility, where the doctors immediately get to work.

The patient may survive. Or not. Even if he doesn’t the medical team can review what they did wrong and try again, this time perhaps saving his life. Because this patient is not alive. He’s a simulation. Until recently, doctors mostly trained by first watching procedures, then practicing them directly on patients. Researchers estimate that deaths from medical errors range between 44,000 and 98,000 every year. Nearly one million additional injuries are also attributed to medical error. “So you don’t want to be the first one that the doctor or nurse works on,” says John Anton, founder of the Florida-based simulation company Information Visualization and Innovative Research (IVIR). “Give them the opportunity to repeat situations they’re going to have to face—that’s what simulation is all about.”