January 22, 2023By Lance Baily

IMSH 2023 Day 1: Healthcare Simulation Conference Coverage

The International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) is the world’s largest conference dedicated to healthcare simulation learning, research, and scholarship, offering 250+ sessions in various formats, from large plenary sessions to small, interactive immersive courses. This healthcare simulation conference is considered to be an educational and networking event for the clinical simulation world. For this reason, many medical simulation vendors choose to have major company announcements coincide with the event. The event will take place this year from January 21 to January 25, 2023, in Orlando, Florida. This HealthySimulation.com article shares updates and highlights from the clinical simulation conference on Sunday, January 22, 2023.

Now in the conference’s 23rd year, the in-person event, along with a virtual IMSH Delivers, will offer hundreds of industry-leading presentations, cementing the event’s place as the world’s premier healthcare simulation education learning event. In recognition of the many milestones the healthcare simulation industry has achieved, the IMSH 2023 Planning Team chose the content theme, “A Standard of Excellence.”

The Society for Simulation in Healthcare states: “Chasing excellence requires effort and determination for groups or individuals who are obsessed with continuing to set a new standard. We all must take up the challenge of disrupting the status quo and continuing to strive to reach the next level. As a community, we reflect on the work of the past to set the tone for continued exploration in the field of healthcare simulation. Our challenge to never settle is a call to action for each individual to make the future of simulation one that you would be proud to set.”


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Daily Conference Updates

Refresh this page for more IMSH 2023 conference coverage. This HealthySimulation.com article will be updated periodically as the event unfolds.

Leading off the day’s events, program leaders thanked all those involved in helping to coordinate IMSH 2023. This included recognizing content reviewers, SSH staff, and others. Next, Education Management Solutions CEO Matt Merino took the stage to explain how the need for innovative solutions is more important now than ever before. He shared how EMS is dedicated to creating solutions to meet the challenges that lie ahead.

Merino next introduced Haru Okuda, MD, FACEP, FSSH. The CEO & Executive Director USF Health Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation, Okuda began his welcoming by encouraging attendees to make connections and highlighted that IMSH 2023 is taking place in the largest exhibit hall in event history – hosting 4,091 meeting registrants. Additionally, he shared that the “SSH 2028 Strategic Priorities” include sustainability and growth, education and learning, credentialing, research and innovation, and individual/organizational/legislative advocacy.


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Other notable plenary takeaways included:

  • Timothy Whitaker, Clinical Educator for CAE Healthcare, took the stage to discuss certification, recognizing that 2023 marks the 10-year anniversary of CHSOS certification. To date, there are 4,000+ certified individuals.
  • Johnny Cartwright, Associate Director of Simulation at Indiana University School of Medicine, shared how earning a CHSOS-A has helped him to deliver the best simulation possible to the community.
  • Jarrod Young, MBA, BSE, CHSOS-A is the Operations Lead and Interim Co-Director at The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Simulation (CHIPS), honored the legacy of Chad Epps.
  • Speaker and author JOE MULL, M.Ed, CSP, discussed “employalty,” and how to ignite commitment and keep top talent in the new age of work. He explains that people aren’t necessarily quitting, but rather upgrading their quality of life.

Coverage by Jill Sanko, PhD, APRN, CHSE-A FSSH:

Day 1: Master’s Classes

The Academy of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare offers master classes. This series is focused on helping the established healthcare simulation professionals solve problems they are grappling with. The program offers the opportunity to work with some of the academy fellows to work through issues as well as build a community of professionals with clinical similar problems. On the first day of IMSH 2023, a group of Academy Fellows met with interested IMSHers focused on problems in education, administration, and operations.

Attendees were given time to share some of their identified problems and discuss them with the Fellows and other attendees. Interested healthcare simulation professionals with five or more years of experience were invited to submit a request to participate in the longer-term mentoring program. Selected individuals will meet with the Fellows again on Tuesday and will have a follow-up with a Fellow on how their issue is resolved or being resolved in 4-6 months.

In the education group, many spoke about the issue of not having time, buy-in, or enthusiasm for faculty development. Ten of the close to 40 attendees from the education group submitted their request to participate in the Tuesday session and follow-up meeting.

Opening Session Highlights – commentary

The IMSH meeting was kicked off with a call to the community to set a Standard of Excellence, highlighting the theme of the meeting. The planning team reminded us why healthcare simulation is so important and what our dedication to the field means for healthcare and patients. They emphasized that achieving excellence requires teamwork, coordination, and collaboration. They hope that we all leave here with a new connection, a new way to collaborate, a reaffirmed commitment to our work, and a zest to continue to build a Standard of Excellence for healthcare simulation.

IMSH 2023 boasts one of the largest meetings with over 4000 people registered. 1,200 submissions (this encompasses research abstracts and educational content) were reviewed by over 250 volunteers. This year also marks a milestone for certification; a decade of certification. We now have certified clinical simulation educators and operations professionals all over the globe.

Attendees were introduced to a new initiative to assist in continuing to build a Standard of Excellence; with the launch of a new fund aimed at supporting larger research initiatives, providing opportunities for developing sim in developing nations, awarding more opportunities for developing nations to send individuals to this meeting thru larger scholarships, and continue to support Chad Epps’ legacy. This fund will help to give much-needed funding and support to educate and grow healthcare simulation across the globe. As of Sunday morning, $35 thousand dollars had been raised with a goal of raising $45 thousand by the end of IMSH.

Each IMSH is preceded by a ‘mini meeting’ focused on a particular topic. In rotation is the research summit. This year marks the 3rd research summit. Like prior summits, the amazing research being carried out was highlighted. A recap of the work presented will take place on Tuesday.

The plenary speaker that started us off on the journey this year was Joe Mull. Joe is an author, speaker, and former human resources professional. As I listened to this dynamic speaker I really tried to see how can I take what he is sharing and apply it. Those in the audience who are administrators likely had the easiest time putting his message in the context of their day-to-day work, as much of his talk focused on how to be a better boss and how to assure the commitment of employees.

His message is important and timely in the face of a trend of “quiet quitting.” This isn’t exactly what it seems, but it is something we need to pay attention to. The idea doesn’t mean stopping all work, but rather stopping doing what is perceived as, what I like to call “other duties as assigned” – the stuff that you are expected to do, but weren’t hired to do.

For those in the audience who are educators, I feel like his message might have been a harder one to connect with. Feeling this way myself, I tried to shift my listening from just hearing the message and wondering, what do I do with this, to applying the message to what I am currently doing, educating. As I started to dabble with this application, I realized that educators are bosses of a sort, so these principles are very applicable. It was just a matter of shifting my view.

Joe Mull introduces three circles as part of his trademarked term EmployalityTM. In one circle is ‘great boss,’ the next ‘ideal job,’ and the last ‘meaningful work.’ Each of these ideals has three corresponding attributes: A great boss equals building trust, coaching, and being an advocate, ideal job equals appropriate compensation for the work being asked, manageability of the workload, and flexibility to get the job done. Finally, meaningful work equals purpose behind the work being asked, work that plays to one’s strengths, and work that cultivates a sense of community of belonging. Importantly when these circles come together they form a Venn diagram; in the center, commitment is found.

Applying Joe’s lessons to education – I will call this “Educationality” (perhaps I can trademark this), I have come up with the following ideas of how educators can shift our thinking from an educator to a great educator. A boss is defined as “a person who is in charge of a worker, group, or organization”, this is not so different from educators who are in charge of students, groups of learners, and often organizations.

If we look at our jobs using this lens, the ideals of being a great employer are easily be applied to being a great educator. As an educator, I challenge you to think like a boss. Can we educate better by building trust with our students, coaching with compassion, and advocating for them? The answer to all three of these is yes! Can we educate better by providing more feedback to help learners improve; can we better balance workload in the context of a single activity, course, and across the curriculum; can we move away from hard deadlines and allow some flexibility? The answer to these three is probably – yes.

Finally, can we educate better by aligning education with a purpose (the purpose that will eventually be their job, how they give back to the world, and how they play their part in making this better); can we develop bespoke assignments and assessments that play to learners’ strengths (I am thinking about the multiple choice test taker versus the essay writer types) and still know that the lessons had meaningful outcomes; can we foster belonging with more intentionality? The answer to these three questions is also yes. This shift will take work, but I think if we do we will be building toward a new Standard of Excellence in education – we will call it – “Educationality.”

Press Box Videos

HealthySimulation.com PressBox Interview Schedule:

Sunday @ 1:30pm Sentinel U – Laura Gonzalez
Monday @ 11:30am EMS – Matt Merino
Monday @ 1:30pm CAEHC – Jeff Evans
Tuesday @ 1:30pm SimX – Ryan Ribeira
Tuesday @ 1:45pm Medical Shipment – Dan Micic

Agenda | Sunday, January 22, 2023

6:30 AM – 8:30 AM | SimFit Fun Run/Walk (sponsored by DLH Corporation)
7:00 AM – 4:30 PM | Registration
7:00 AM – 4:30 PM | SSH Central
7:00 AM – 4:30 PM | Presenter Center
7:00 AM – 10:30 AM | Committees, Section, Interest Group, and Affinity Group Meetings
8:00 AM – 11:00 AM | CHSE/CHSOS Testing
8:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Exhibitor Move in and Set up
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM | Opening Plenary Session – The Chad Epps Lecture
12:30 PM – 6:00 PM | Grand Opening of Exhibit Hall
12:30 PM – 6:00 PM | Technology Experiential Area in Exhibit Hall
12:30 PM – 6:00 PM | Research Posters Displayed in Exhibit Hall
12:30 PM – 2:30 PM | Lunch in Exhibit Hall – NEW THIS YEAR!
2:30 PM – 3:30 PM | Research Poster Professor Rounds in Exhibit Hall
3:00 PM – 6:00 PM | CHSE/CHSOS Testing
4:30 PM – 6:00 PM | “Happy Hour” in the Exhibit Hall



More About IMSH Delivers

IMSH Delivers 2023 consists of educational content live-streamed from the in-person event and prerecorded sessions. Livestreamed content will be recorded and included in the IMSH Delivers 2023 Collection. Virtual attendees have access to earn a total of 30 IPCE credit hours. Additional courses from the IMSH Delivers 2023 Collection will be available for an additional $25 per IPCE unit. The IMSH Delivers 2023 Collection will be comprised of:

  • Livestream of Plenary Sessions (Up to 4 speakers)
  • Livestream of eight (8) sessions from the in-person meeting. One course from each general session time block will be live-streamed to the virtual audience
  • 40 recorded educational courses
  • 15 recorded SimVentor Demos
  • 15 recorded Oral Research Abstract Presentations
  • 5 recorded Learning Lab presentations
  • Virtual exhibitor profiles

More About IMSH

Hosted by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH), the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) is a scientific conference that explores the latest innovations and best practices in healthcare simulation. IMSH provides the tools and resources healthcare professionals need to advance their skills, impact change in delivery systems and practice, and, ultimately, improve patient safety.

Plan ahead: IMSH 2024 will be held from January 20 to January 24, 2024 in San Diego, California.

Learn More About IMSH 2023


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