Health Scholars, the leading VR clinical training platform, develops VR simulations with ultra-realistic animation, adaptive learning practices, AI, and voice to deliver simulations with the most immersive and interactive experience a provider can have, next to the real thing. Healthcare professionals use the platform to perfect critical skills and competencies, including communication, teamwork, decision-making, and critical thinking.
At the same time, executives and educators can validate provider competency and leverage detailed analytics to identify skills gaps and optimize training to mitigate risk and help prevent costly sentinel events. With simulation expert and ED physician Dr. Brian Gillett and health tech veteran Scott Johnson leading the charge, Health Scholars aims to improve patient outcomes with transformative VR training solutions. Because the best training isn’t read or watched. It’s experienced.
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Denver, Colorado, the mission of Health Scholars is to lead healthcare simulation through virtualization, making experience-based training scaleable, accessible and affordable to both public health and safety professionals. Health Scholars additionally has clinical and support operations embedded in the world-class Jump Trading Simulation and Education Center on the OSF Healthcare campus in Peoria, Illinois.
The VR simulations offered extend physical simulation beyond the simulation lab, enabling repeatable practice of proper workflows as well as critical soft skills like communications, situational awareness and critical thinking. Virtual reality simulation training allows educators to deliver consistent, memorable, on-demand training experiences across their entire organization with less overhead.
By engaging in cloud-based simulated training, educators are able to quickly deploy hands-on learning to large learner populations across a hospital network. They will mitigate expensive incidents and reduce liability costs with a solution that’s more affordable than high-fidelity simulation training as well.
Along with being scalable and cost-effective, clinical training platforms help to improve patient safety by allowing trainees to experience realistic scenarios. According to Health Scholars, 84% of learners are better prepared for the field after engaging in these clinically accurate, interactive experiences. The platform also helps improve clinical decision-making, performance and communication skills, while simultaneously reducing errors.
“These new technologies will remake how education content is provided to clinicians. Health Scholars is about partnering with healthcare providers and their professional staff to continuously improve their ability to serve patients,” Cole Sandau, the CEO of Health Scholars, said. “Our platform, analytics, and VR technologies deliver more impact, at a lower cost, and in less time than anyone thought possible just a year go.”
Today, Health Scholars’ Medical Simulation Management solutions addresses the full breadth of simulation scenario design, management, assessment and reporting across a healthcare network including:
- Cloud-based, IT friendly and securely accessible from anywhere on any device with internet connectivity
- Work individually or collaboratively on scenario development, even while away from the simulation center
- Intelligently schedule and manage resources
- Run in situ sessions anywhere with just a tablet or smartphone
- Automate tracking
- Utilize graphical reporting to measure clinical simulation training impact
Virtual Reality Training Applications from Health Scholars
One of Health Scholars’ newest VR applications, ACLS Virtual Reality Simulation, is designed in accordance with the American Heart Association’s guidelines to complement AHA’s HeartCode training. The tool instructs participants and validates the competencies needed to diagnose and resuscitate adults with cardiopulmonary arrest and other common cardiac emergencies.
As no two cardiac emergencies are ever the same, first responders need consistent, repeatable, experience-based training. Yet limited budgets, staff turnover, scheduling conflicts and more can make delivering frequent training to EMS professionals challenging. Health Scholars’ VR EMS simulation seeks to help overcome these challenges.
In terms of pre-hospital ACLS virtual reality training, Health Scholars employs immersive, repeatable simulation in healthcare training designed for first responders. EMS professionals can use ACLS VR training as a pre-learning application before physical simulation or as supplemental training to validate and refresh competencies requisite to identifying and managing the ACLS core rhythms in stable and unstable patient conditions.
Also designed in accordance with AHA guidelines, pre-hospital ACLS virtual reality training allows learners to play the role of the team lead running an in-home mega code and are provided thirteen total scenarios that reflect cardiac and non-cardiac arrest scenarios. Learners can then identify rhythms and direct virtual team members to shock, give meds and/or perform CPR as necessary.
The platform technology can further simulate in-home scenarios with virtual team members and common real-life distractions. Another benefit are the drills to enhance proper team management communication skills, develop situational awareness and instruct on proper hospital notification.
With Health Scholars’ VR-ready management platform, users can manage, deliver and analyze performance of VR training from a single solution, assign VR training and set completion dates and track completion status and individual learner performance. Those who engage with the platform can further utilize visual reports to identify readiness and learning gaps across an entire organization, specific station or an individual learner.
As for in-hospital ACLS virtual reality training, Health Scholars has designed immersive, repeatable simulations for clinicians. Clinicians can use the CE-accredited VR training as a pre-learning application before physical simulation or as supplemental training to validate and refresh ACLS competencies.
Designed to complement AHA’s HeartCode training and RQI program, the CE-accredited VR training leverages state-of-the-art voice recognition and motion capture technologies to deliver an immersive experience. During this experience, learners play the role of the team lead running the mega code and are provided the core ACLS rhythms across stable, unstable and cardiac-arrest scenarios. They can identify rhythms in the context of the patient’s stability and direct virtual team members to shock, give meds and/or perform CPR as necessary.
This tool helps learners address team members by name and make eye contact. The simulations can additionally help them practice situational awareness of team-member fatigue and task performance, engage in closed-loop communications andeflect on areas of improvement with an in-app debrief.
Lastly, Fire in The OR Virtual Reality is an affordable, scalable surgical fire training tool to mitigate risks and reduce liability costs. Fire in the OR Virtual Reality surgery simulation is CE-accredited and provides an unmatched level of realism, delivering rich surgical simulation efficiently, cost effectively and at scale.
Consisting of three modules, the VR tool helps learners iIdentify fire risks while safely practicing key skills to manage a surgical fire. The modules include a tutorial, fire triad and fire on a patient. Learners can be debriefed on their actions following the simulation to better understand the causes of operating room fires.
While surgical fires are lower-occurrence, they’re expensive and can lead to injuries – or even death. Training for these high-risk events is critical. The Fire in the OR virtual reality simulation helps prepare an organization for up to 50% less costs than traditional physical simulation, according to Health Scholars.
Clinical Simulation Conferences like INACSL, SimGHOSTS, and IMSH are great places to see Health Scholars in person!
