InSimu is a diagnostic SaaS (Software as a Service) for healthcare simulation learners and educators designed to make medical school training measurable, and therefore more efficient. The company’s Patient App provides physicians and learners with the opportunity to practice their future clinical work in the safety of virtual reality on simulated patients with the full scale of diagnostic methods. This interactive and engaging digital platform increases learner satisfaction by enhancing the quality of their education.
InSimu Patient changes the way young professionals and learners retain information by mimicking all possible aspects of real-life diagnostics. Using this “medutainment” approach, learners can improve their assessment of clinical reasoning skills, compare their skill levels to professional standards, and learn the evidence-based, cost and time-efficient diagnostic pathways. Ultimately, InSimu’s virtual patient simulator allows learners to focus on what matters most and practice in their designated specialization.
Additionally, InSimu offers a powerful course creator, student management resources and performance analytics. Learners can assess their clinical skills and compare them to those of hundreds of other learners in an objective and standardized way. Another major convenience of the InSimu platform is that the solution is accessible from anytime and anywhere. Learners are provided with a problem-based education and hundreds of patient encounters in a matter of clicks, making teaching data-driven and more efficient as well. The user can even filter virtual patients by symptoms. The utmost goal of InSimu Patient is to improve the safe, efficient and correct medical diagnosis of patients across the world.
The InSimu Patient app is available on any mobile device (Android and iOS), and for courses created by medical schools. The application is also available on desktop. The Instructor Portal is another web-based application that is accessible from any computer and mobile device. To provide quality content and enhanced experience to users, running the application requires a steady and fast internet connection.
InSimu Patient app teaches learners how to make a correct, evidence-based diagnosis in a cost and time-effective way. The application also provides diagnostic courses accredited for Continuing Medical Education in the U.S. The Differential Diagnostics of Abdominal Pain Using Virtual Patients course has been approved 1.50 AAFP Elective credits. Today, InSimu offers diagnostic skills for learners ranging from more than 140 diseases in 14 specializations, including:
- Internal Medicine
- Emergency Medicine
- Gastroenterology
- Oncology
- Immunology
- Toxicology
- Infectious Diseases
- Hematology
- Neurology
- Surgery
- Cardiology
- Hepatology
- Pulmonology
- Nephrology
InSimu University
InSimu University consists of two components: the InSimu Patient app for the learners, and the Instructor Portal for educators. Universities implementing the InSimu platform have access to a number of extra features through these two components. Features include presentable cases, which ensures that learners always have the right patient at hand in the class.
Within the Patient App, InSimu has a pool of theoretically an infinite number of virtual patients. Just as in real life, patients may have the same disease, with different presenting symptoms. The company has already simulated over 140 diseases across these virtual patients. InSimu is continuously developing new cases and simulating new diseases to cover specializations as much as possible. Yet, without the premium subscription, users will have access to a limited number of patients.
Note, the patient might die depending on their illness if the diagnosis is not selected in time. While utilizing the platform, learners may choose to order various diagnostic tests at the same time. If they order more tests at the same time, only the longest turnaround time will be added to their counter. For the multi-order function in the app, learners should go in the desired test type (e.g., Labs) and tap on “select” in the right upper corner. Those using the app on iOS will have another feature called “order sheet” for each test type (e.g., History, Physical, Labs, Imaging, Others). XP points are calculated based on the following factors:
- The correctness of the diagnosis
- Time and cost of the ordered tests compared to optimal
- Missed tests
- Harmful tests ordered
Then, within the Instructor Portal, the course creator allows educators to select from a pre-made list of diagnostic scenarios or to create their own course. There may not be enough time on the lectures, seminars and rotation for the learners to practice on enough patients. For this reason, InSimu allows educators to assign their learners any number of virtual patients for homework.
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Using InSimu’s exam platform, educators can assess learners’ real diagnostic thinking and preparedness. Educators can select the virtual patients for their exam, and get an analytics report they are already familiar with. This complete in-depth analysis of learner diagnostic performance via a digital InSimu assistant instructor provides educators with thorough statistics of your learner group as well as learner’s individual performance.
InSimu Provides Clinical Simulation Training Resources amid COVID-19
During the COVID-19 pandemic, InSumu provided 30 days of free InSimu Premium access to medical schools around the world. This was to help them continue to offer clinical training through an innovative online e-learning platform during coronavirus closures. InSimu also published guidelines for educators on how they can rapidly and efficiently implement new remote clinical training methods.
In the event of challenges, competitions or courses organized in the InSimu Patient app by schools, universities, educators, societies or other third parties, the host will see the personal information about the user. The personal information seen by the host may include the name and picture of the user provided by the user in their profile, details on how the user solved the virtual patient cases (e.g., ordered diagnostic tests, the selected diagnoses, time to solve the cases, XP points received for the solution). This information will not be visible for other users during or after the challenge.
