Laerdal Medical, a global leader in healthcare education, training, and therapy solutions, is pleased to announce on February 13, 2025, the acquisition of SIMCharacters, an Austrian-based company renowned for their advanced high-fidelity simulators that focus on neonatal care. This acquisition marks a significant step in Laerdal’s mission of helping save lives by providing cutting-edge medical training solutions to help improve quality of care. Having worked closely with SIMCharacters as a distributor, Laerdal is thrilled to now welcome them to the organization. This HealthySimulation.com article will highlight Laerdal’s Press Release announcement of the new partnership and the global impact on healthcare simulation.
SIMCharacters Becomes Part of the Laerdal Family
With the acquisition, SIMCharacters will become part of the global Laerdal organization – providing the opportunity for Laerdal to further strengthen their position in the healthcare simulation space, in particular neonatology, and pediatric care. SIMCharacters’ high-fidelity neonatal simulator will enhance Laerdal’s current baby simulation portfolio, offering healthcare professionals, and educational institutions an even broader suite of tools to improve healthcare training. Alf-Christian Dybdahl, CEO of Laerdal Medical, said: ”We are excited to officially welcome SIMCharacters to the Laerdal team. Their expertise, and innovative products, including neonatal simulators Paul, Emily, and Emma, perfectly complement our existing baby simulation offerings.” Dybdahl concluded: ”We look forward to achieving great things together, and we are confident that this acquisition will benefit not only both companies but healthcare professionals, and their patients globally. Please join us in welcoming SIMCharacters to Laerdal.”
The SIMCharacters’ team, led by neonatologist Dr. Jens Schwindt, will join Laerdal as part of this exciting journey. Dr. Schwindt’s extensive experience and network in neonatology will be invaluable as Laerdal continues to innovate and improve healthcare training outcomes for professionals caring for the most vulnerable of patients – premature and term newborns. “My journey into neonatal simulation began in 2006 in Stavanger when Laerdal introduced its first newborn high-fidelity simulator. Now, joining forces with Laerdal feels like coming full circle. Our entire team of engineers, hardware and software developers, special effects designers, neonatologists, and neonatal nurses, is delighted to become a part of Laerdal and together improve the quality of care jointly and sustainably for critically ill preterm and newborn infants,” Schwindt explains.
Paul, Emma, and Emily Simulator Features
In the current healthcare arena and medical education systems, students must train for critical situations in safe environments that do not endanger the life or health of patients. There is an ethical obligation in the medical care of children. SIMCharacters aims to develop the most realistic and technologically advanced pediatric simulators for highly realistic simulation training.
In the past, realistic technology simulating the small body of a 27-week-old infant, such as Paul, had not been available. Yet today, professionals can use the Paul learning tool to gain experience performing life-saving procedures during delicate critical care emergencies. According to Dr. Schwindt, this is why clinical simulation is quickly becoming a modern way to educate and train healthcare professionals, allowing for the safe high-stakes practice of behavioral, cognitive, and technical skills. SIMCharacters now has Emily, a full-term newborn at 39+6 gestational age. Emily has the same realistic technology and features to create a high-emotion simulator.
The simulators have a high-realistic internal and external anatomy, including a 3D-printed larynx based on real-life preterm MRI scans. Additionally, 3D printing is used to create the upper airway, ideal for intubation training and all modern preterm stabilization strategies like LIS (MIST) and INSURE. Other features include highly realistic internal and external anatomical structures and convincingly lifelike clinical practice features. Adding to the realistic nature, the medical simulation manikin is produced using real hair.
The healthcare simulation manikin also comes equipped with authentic pathologies specific to preterm babies with physiological and pathological breathing patterns, necrotizing enterocolitis, cyanosis, and hyperoxia. Preprogrammed symptom complexes are able to be explored through Paul are respiratory distress syndrome, biparietal diameter, necrotizing enterocolitis, abdominal distension, pneumothorax, and apnea. Users can further track spontaneous breathing with a respiratory rate variable between 0 and 100 bpm and infinitely variable lung compliance.
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More About Laerdal Medical
Laerdal is dedicated to our mission of helping save lives. Laerdal Medical is a world leader in healthcare education and resuscitation training that uses immersive technologies and data-centric insights to increase survival and improve healthcare quality. We empower our heroes/life savers, and healthcare workers, to help them save more lives. Improving the quality of care is part of our mission, to help save more lives. And Laerdal Medical has established the goal to help save one million more lives. Every year. By 2030. However, we can’t do this alone. This is a shared goal of the Laerdal Group. A group of companies that develops healthcare-related solutions and programs focused on a common mission to help save lives, together with our Partners. The Laerdal Group is composed of Laerdal Medical, Laerdal Global Health, Million Lives Fund, and Laerdal Foundation. Laerdal is a global company in 26 countries worldwide.
View the HealthySimulation.com Webinar Enhance Training Outcomes with Laerdal Medical’s Latest Simulation Solutions to learn more!
Paul, Emma, and Emily will add to Laerdal’s growing product line of quality high-fidelity simulators for learners to provide evidence-based care to improve patient safety and outcomes across the lifespan. The Laerdal product line includes:
- SimMan 3G
- SimMan Trauma
- SimMan Essential
- SimMan ALS
- SimMan Critical Care
- Mama Anne
- SimNewB
- Newborn Anne
- SimBaby
- SimBaby with Tracheostomy
- MegaCode Kid
- SimJunior
- Various CPR manikins
- Nursing Anne Simulator
- Nursing Anne Geriatric
- Adult Bariatric Suit
- vSim and Next Gen vSim for Nursing across the lifespan
More About SIMCharacters
SIMCharacters was founded in Vienna, Austria in 2012. The company was established with an interdisciplinary team comprising neonatologists and neonatal nursing staff, biomedical engineers, hardware and software developers, and special-effects designers. The aim was to develop highly realistic preterm and newborn simulators that enable neonatal team training at the highest level. The first product, the preterm baby simulator “Paul”, was introduced in 2018 and is now in use in over 150 neonatal units worldwide. At IMSH2024, SIMCharacters presented their two new term newborn simulators, “Emily” and “Emma”.
Learn More About the Emily, Paul, and Emma Pediatric Simulators Now!
