Continuing our series of dedicated articles covering leading healthcare simulation companies from around the world (such as our recent article 14 Important Medical Simulation Companies to Know), here are 10 more “must know” more about medical simulation vendors who are helping to evolve the industry. From leading medical suppliers, to European A/V Recording System providers, innovative VR developers, 3D printing leaders, speciality task trainers, and unique sensor technology groups supporting medical simulator development — here is our most recent coverage of clinical simulation companies to know!
Pocket Nurse: This US-based Nurse Owned and operated company makes and distributes medical supplies and equipment for healthcare simulation and education in medicine, nursing, EMS, pharmacy and other allied health groups. The company’s products are extensively used in nursing simulation, but have application across the entire range of the medical simulation industry.
Pocket Nurse began business in 1992 with one product, the Pocket Nurse pocket organizer. This organizer was so popular, it led the way to the production and sale of over 5600 products which now includes manikins from Laerdal, moulage tools, and headwalls. The company was founded and owned by a nurse, Anthony Battaglia — who still oversees the company to this day.
One of Pocket Nurse’s most popular product lines is their Demo Dose medications. The company has been consistently willing to create new practice medications and packaging to match changing clinical practice. Medical simulation should mimic real life situations as much as possible as this adds fidelity to simulation scenarios. Having medications and packages that closely resemble actual medications used in practice provides familiarity for learners which in turn, helps them transition from the classroom to clinical practice.
UbiSim: UbiSim is a multidisciplinary team of nursing educators, healthcare simulation experts, software engineers and 3D artists, working to combine nursing simulation and virtual reality for an immersive learning experience. Headquartered in Montreal, Canada, the company’s goal is to make nursing simulation more affordable, more accessible and more realistic than ever. Using unique benefits presented through immersive virtual reality in medicine, UbiSim offers a complete simulation lab on a flexible platform. This allows the user to create and experience realistic clinical situations without needing to access physical simulation centers that are often booked months ahead of time.
Polhemus: Polhemus is a 3D motion tracking technology company that delivers six degrees of freedom motion measurement systems, digitizing products, eye-tracking systems and handheld 3D laser scanners which are all commonly used in medical simulation systems. Headquartered in Colchester, Vermont, the company has been working to produce and distribute cutting-edge applications across the world for over 40 years, establishing patient safety through medical simulator solutions. The Polhemus brand delivers high performance and cost-effective solutions with sensors that are low latency and completely embeddable. Polhemus products can be found throughout an array of applications, including biomechanics, virtual reality, training simulators, image guided surgery, orthotics and prosthetics, military guidance systems and others.
SIMCharacters: SIMCharacters is a patient training, safety and consulting company that was founded in 2012 in Vienna, Austria by Dr. Jens-Christian Schwindt — a leading expert in neonatology and healthcare simulation education. Since the company was founded, SIMCharacters has broken new ground in the development of small patient simulators, and combines know-how in medicine, lifelike anatomy and high-class animation technology. The goal of SIMCharacters is to improve the quality of care of critically ill children, especially term and preterm infants.
With this in mind, and along with design support from leading experts in healthcare, education, electrical manufacturing, animatronics and special effects, SIMCharacters created Paul. This highly-realistic preemie infant represents a 27 week born neonate with anatomically correct airway, weighing merely 1000 grams, measuring only 35 centimeters long and providing lifelike movement for an infant of such a young age. The manikin is designed to empower neonatology teams with high-fidelity simulation experiences, improve learning, patient safety and clinical care outcomes.
SimX: SimX, previously called SimXAR, is a healthcare software company specializing in medical simulation, virtual reality, augmented reality and medical training and education. The company brings virtual and augmented reality into the realm of healthcare simulation and training. The company was founded by physicians in training at Stanford, the University of California at San Francisco and University of California at Los Angeles. They understood that simulation practice and training is extremely beneficial to both learners and clinicians, and hoped to use virtual reality to make simulation cheaper and more accessible, to ultimately reduce medical error and increase patient safety. Seeking to push simulation forward, SimX developed a software system that was the first comprehensive professional-grade VR medical simulation system product available on the market. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Mountain View, California, the platform allows medical teams to replace expensive manikins with incredibly flexible simulated patients, backed by a robust case creation engine.
Operative Experience Inc. (OEI): Operative Experience Inc. makes hands-in-the-body medical simulators for obstetrics, trauma and surgical training. These healthcare simulation manikins are characterized by high anatomic fidelity and life-like tissue that can be incised, sutured and retracted using standard surgical instruments. Headquartered in North East, Maryland, Operative Experience Inc.’s mission is to revolutionize surgical and medical team training. Using these high-fidelity simulation makins, and with a rigorous experiential instructional paradigm, OEI works to reduce training costs while increasing training effectiveness and retention. The company is dedicated to applying this medical simulation technology throughout the continuum of care, from tactical operations in the field to emergency procedures in the operating room. Operative Experience Inc. is constantly considering research and partnerships that can expand the company’s surgical product line. For procedures that destroy tissue, OEI either provides modular replacements, cost effective refurbishments or low cost task trainers. Task trainers enable repetitive cost effective practice to proficiency in a surgical component, prior to a more expansive surgery. Orientation and on-site training is also available.
Stratasys: Stratasys is a 3D printing and additive manufacturing company that is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota and Rehovot, Israel. For over 30 years, the company has been pioneering the future of office-based rapid prototyping and direct digital manufacturing solutions through the development of 3D printers and 3D production systems. Stratasys was founded by S. Scott Crump, along with his wife, Lisa H. Crump, in 1989. In April 1992 they sold the first company product, the 3D Modeler. A year later, in June 1993, Stratasys introduced its second product, the Benchtop. Following this release, Stratasys went public in October 1994 to acquire additional funds to expand the company’s engineering capabilities. At the forefront of Stratasys push for prototyping and manufacturing advancement, the company’s 3D printers, materials, software, professional services and on-demand parts have the ability to transform a product lifecycle from design through manufacturing and end use parts.
Noldus Information Technology: Noldus, also known as Noldus Information Technology, develops software, instruments, integrated systems and services for behavioral research including recording systems for debriefing purposes in healthcare simulation. These solutions are designed to provide scientists and practitioners the ability to enhance the quality of their data, increase productivity and make optimal use of human resources. The company is inspired by scientific and societal challenges , and wants to help ensure customers can respond to the demands of today and prepare for those of tomorrow. With Noldus solutions, users will gain the insight they need in processes, human performance, and communication in medical simulation. This is true regardless of whether their objective is to answer a research question, provide high quality medical education or assess team performance. To help customers improve research, engineering, teaching and training, the company’s open solutions facilitate data exchange and insights discovery. This allows them to come to results rapidly and easily — anytime and anywhere — while safeguarding privacy and security.
OtoSim: Headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, OtoSim Inc. is a healthcare simulation company focused on otoscopy and ophthalmoscopy training. The company’s simulation units and processes can be used to train medical learners in otoscopy, or the use of an otoscope to examine the ear. According to OtoSim, clinical studies have shown a 44% improvement in the diagnostic efficiency of learners who used the company products for training compared to regular classroom training alone. For this reason, the company’s goal has remained to enhance patient safety outcomes through better training of primary healthcare providers, with effective and innovative medical simulation tools.
To date, OtoSim’s medical training technologies have been adopted in Canada, the United States and elsewhere globally by medical schools, nursing schools, physician assistant programs and allied health programs, as well as teaching hospitals and clinics. Technologies created and distributed by the company continue to benefit the healthcare disciplines of medicine, nurse practitioners, optometry, osteopathic medicine, naturopathic medicine and audiologists daily.
SECTRA AB: SECTRA AB is an information technology and services company that was founded in 1978 in Linköping, Sweden by Viiveke Fåk, Ingemar Ingemarsson, Rolf Blom and Robert Forchheimer which now provides educational and training tools for medical simulation. Through developing solutions and services for medical imaging IT and cybersecurity, the company has helped hospitals using healthcare simulation worldwide to enhance their efficiency of care, critical social functions and authorities as well as defense forces. Identifying that medical images play a key role in diagnostics and the determination of an appropriate treatment, SECTRA AB develops “future-proof and effective IT solutions and services” for storing, viewing and working with these images. By focusing on what some consider to be the costliest and most resource-intensive areas in the healthcare sector, SECTRA AB offers support across the diagnosis, planning and patient monitoring in terms of cancer diseases, osteoarthritis and orthopaedic surgery. The company also focuses on helping various departments and disciplines cooperate for better and more efficient care.
Other Articles Covering Important Key Terms in the Medical Simulation Industry:
- 14 More Must-Know Healthcare Simulation Key Terms
- 12 More ‘Must-Know’ Healthcare Simulation Key Terms
- 6 Additional Medical Simulation Keywords You Need to Know About
- 6 Medical Simulation Keywords You Need to Know About
- 13 Medical Simulation Keywords You Need to Know About
- 11 Medical Simulation Keywords You Need to Know About
- 10 Medical Simulation Keywords You Need to Know About
- 15 Must Know Healthcare Simulation Terms For 2020
- 15 Medical Simulation Companies You Need to Know About
- 13 More Simulation in Healthcare Companies to That You Need to Know About
- 10 More Healthcare Simulation Companies You Must Know About
- 16 Must-Know Healthcare Simulation Key Terms
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