SimTunes, an MUSC spin-off company, announced it will offer patient simulation educational material developed at MUSC's Health Care Simulation of South Carolina (HCSSC) beginning this April through SimStore on the Internet.

Dr. John J. Schaefer demonstrates how the patient simulation education software works.

This development marks the advance of better, standardized simulation technology training offered worldwide that will result in a better-trained health care workforce. Training through patient simulation is thought to reduce medical errors and improve patient safety overall, similar to the effects of its use in other industries, such as commercial aviation.

John J. Schaefer III, M.D., holder of the Lewis Blackman Endowed Chair at Health Sciences South Carolina and MUSC Simulation Center director, said what he really likes about the project is that licensing simulation learning systems serves the main missions of improving patient safety and the education of health care students, all while generating resources and jobs in South Carolina.

Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. also supported the development.

"I am thankful for the vision and support of the leadership in the Health Sciences South Carolina and S.C. Legislature in supporting the endowed chairs program," he said. "Today's announcement is a most extraordinary example of MUSC's research activity creating a health sciences company that will deliver groundbreaking, life-enhancing services to the world."

SimStore (http://simstore.com/) will sell a wide range of medical simulation educational material. It was established by SimVentures, a joint venture between HealthStream Inc., a leading provider of learning and research solutions for the health care industry, and Laerdal Medical, the world's leading provider of resuscitation education products and patient simulators.

With scenarios and other content already created by HCSSC and other leading educators from around the world, SimStore will serve as a hub of educational content for multiple health care disciplines. SimStore will offer for purchase more than 1,000 scenarios—with thousands more to follow—from some of the world's leading health care organizations and associations that together form a leading developer network.
Academic medical institutions that use simulation education will benefit from access to scenarios that are standardized to equalize training, instruction material needed for the simulation teacher, and extensive debriefing sections that enable researchers to study simulation training effectiveness, and eliminate the need for a full-time simulation specialist because individual educators can master the content to pass onto students.
By April 1, SimTunes expects to have more than 300 simulation scenarios available for sale through SimStore.

Heyward Coleman, president of SimTunes, said SimStore is going to be very effective in distributing educational material developed at HCSSC to centers that employ patient simulators around the world. "HealthStream, the leader of online education to hospitals in the United States, and Laerdal, the largest producer of patient simulators worldwide, are the ideal partners to make SimStore a dominant factor in the field of educational material for the simulation industry," he said.