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Nasco Healthcare Simulator Alex Trains Clinical Communication with AI

Nasco Healthcare Simulator Alex Trains Clinical Communication with AI

Nasco Healthcare is on the leading edge to train healthcare professionals in clinical simulation, adding artificial intelligence (AI) clinical communication simulators to their product line. ALEX and AXEL are two new Nasco healthcare simulators for learners to practice clinical communication through AI during an in-person simulation. This HealthySimulation.com article will review Nasco’s ALEX and AXEL simulators and how they can help your learners improve their communication skills.

Artificial Intelligence and Healthcare Simulation

What is Artificial Intelligence aka AI? The Healthcare Simulation Dictionary defines AI as: “A system of computerized data-gathering and prediction that models human behavior and decision-making with minimal human intervention. In healthcare simulation, AI often refers to underlying programming that provides physiological or system based algorithm changes based on inputs from users and learners. Often paired with machine learning, in which the software is programmed to alter algorithms and predictions based on observed data and results without human intervention. Virtual patients use artificial intelligence to react appropriately to the user or learner.”

HealthySimulation.com has been disseminating information about AI for years. In How AI Might One Day Revolutionize All Clinical Simulation Training, the author discusses how AI can improve simulation.

Nasco’s ALEX and AXEL

Nasco addresses AI’s incorporation into manikin-based simulation with the twins ALEX and AXEL. Both are ideal untethered/stand-alone simulators to train nurses, medical students, and patient care personnel anywhere. Both ALEX and AXEL are available in light and medium skin tones. A control center is not required to use the simulators to provide learners with the opportunity to:

  • Build critical thinking, decision-making & priority-setting skills
  • Perform patient physical assessment
  • Evaluate vitals and waveforms with a simulated patient monitor
  • Create automated performance assessment of learning objectives
  • Maintain treatment plan with customizable labs and medical orders
  • Practice procedures such as I.V. administration, catheterization, and airway management
  • Assess advanced life support performance with CPR Metrics
  • Live stream and/or record patient perspective during simulated events

ALEX Simulator Provides Unique Manikin Communication Training

ALEX is a cloud-connected patient simulator that incorporates speech recognition with artificial intelligence (AI) voice responses in Spanish, French, German, and English. ALEX uses scenario-driven, instructor-controlled simulations. ALEX includes a virtual AED/Pacing and 12-lead ECG. Based on the service level, ALEX has model-driven physiology with pharmaceutical treatment simulations, digital patient, and team space.

ALEX includes a five-year software subscription, which becomes activated after purchase. Following the initial five years, ALEX’s computerized functionality requires an annual paid software subscription.

AXEL Simulator Lives in the Cloud

AXEL is a cloud-connected patient simulator with computerized functionality that requires a software subscription, which is included for the product’s lifetime. AXEL uses scenario-driven, instructor-controlled simulations. AXEL facilitates patient learner communication via internal microphone and speakers in real-time. AXEL incorporates model-driven physiology with pharmaceutical treatment simulations. AXEL, like his twin ALEX, includes the virtual AED/Pacing and 12 lead ECG. AXEL comes with a lifetime software service license and a five-year warranty.

Nasco’s Simulators to Improve Patient Care

The company works to meet the ever-changing needs of frontline healthcare workers by offering a comprehensive portfolio of simulation products that fulfill a broad range of low and high-fidelity requirements, including virtual patients and artificial intelligence (AI). The company’s top products include:

  • Casualty Care Rescue Randy – a rugged, affordable full-body manikin for realistic training in treating the three most preventable causes of death: massive bleeding, tension pneumothorax, and airway obstruction.
  • ALEX – the first patient communication simulator that sees, listens, and responds using artificial intelligence.
  • AXEL – a patient simulator with manual real-time speech and built-in audio-visual recording capabilities.
  • DANi – Teen & Young Adult Advanced Simulator to address the gap between pediatric manikin and middle-aged manikin. DANi allows healthcare workers, crime and sexual abuse investigators, and social workers to Be READY for teen patients who need their care.
  • TERi – a comprehensive elderly patient care trainer with a highly realistic look and feel that accurately represents the human anatomy.

View the HealthySimulation.com LEARN CE/CME Platform Webinar Digital Patients with Artificial Intelligence: Theory and Practice to learn more!


More About Nasco Healthcare

Based in Saugerties, NY, and Fort Atkinson, WI, Nasco Healthcare provides a wide range of innovative and affordable healthcare simulation products to healthcare professionals worldwide. The company was started in 1941 by Norman Eckley, an agricultural teacher who developed educational tools from his farm. Eighty years later, Nasco Healthcare has always supported Emergency Medical Services (EMS), EMTs, Law Enforcement Officers (LEO), first responders, nurses, and phlebotomists to Be READY. With over 6,000 products, the company has considered every need and offers the right simulation solution for any situation.

Nasco Healthcare strives to meet the healthcare needs of all sections of society with quality, reliability, and integrity. The company’s products are made to ISO9001 standards, and Nasco Healthcare backs this up with a warranty of up to five years. The company’s simulators are future-proof with easily upgradeable and replaceable parts. Nasco Healthcare is here to help healthcare heroes.

  • Ready to answer the call.
  • Ready to make split-second decisions.
  • Ready to deliver when it counts.
  • Ready for any situation.
  • Ready to save lives.

As an ISO 9001 certified organization, every Nasco Healthcare product is reliable, life-like, designed in the United States, compliant with healthcare regulations, and covered by up to a 5-year warranty. Plus, easily upgradeable and replaceable parts mean you can have a Nasco Healthcare product for life. Eighty years after Norman Eckley’s modest start, Nasco Healthcare continues to passionately serve the needs of healthcare professionals worldwide so they can Be READY.

Nasco Healthcare is passionate about developing training solutions that reflect diversity, as racial and ethnic minorities tend to receive lower-quality access to healthcare. The company strongly believes that diversity in simulation helps ensure that healthcare workers are both knowledgeable and caring about the communities they will work in. This includes incorporating different skin tones into their products that reflect the unique populations that healthcare workers serve.

Guided by a deep heritage in education, Nasco Healthcare has made these products both affordable and accessible in order to prepare healthcare heroes worldwide for critical, in-the-moment decisions when lives are at stake.

Nasco Healthcare is passionate about developing training solutions that reflect diversity, as racial and ethnic minorities tend to receive lower-quality access to healthcare. The company strongly believes that diversity in simulation helps ensure that healthcare workers are both knowledgeable and caring about the communities they will work in. This includes incorporating different skin tones into their products that reflect the unique populations that healthcare workers serve.

Learn More About Nasco’s Alex and Axel!

Teresa Gore Avatar
PhD, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, CHSE-A, FSSH, FAAN
Content Manager
Dr. Gore has experience in educating future nurses in the undergraduate and graduate nursing programs. Dr. Gore has a PhD in Adult Education, a DNP as a family nurse practitioner, and a certificate in Simulation Education. Dr. Gore is an innovative, compassionate educator and an expert in the field of healthcare simulation. In 2007l Teresa started her journey in healthcare simulation. She is involved in INACSL and SSH. She is a Past-President of INACSL and is a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator Advanced (CHSE-A). In 2018, she was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN). In 2021, she was inducted as a Fellow in the Society of Simulation in Healthcare Academy (FSSH) and selected as a Visionary Leader University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing Alumni. During her career, Dr. Gore has led in the development and integration of simulation into all undergraduate clinical courses and started an OSCE program for APRN students. Her research interests and scholarly work focus on simulation, online course development and faculty development. She has numerous invited presentations nationally and internationally on simulation topics.