With over 5,000 members SSH, aka The Society for Simulation in Healthcare, is the world’s largest organization dedicated to medical simulation. The purpose of SSH is to serve a global community of practice enhancing the quality of healthcare. The nonprofit’s mission is to serve their members by fostering education, education, professional development, and the advancement of research and innovation; promote the profession of healthcare simulation through standards and ethics; and champion healthcare simulation through advocacy, sharing, facilitating, and collaborating. SSH seeks to reduce errors in patient care and improve clinical performance through the use of simulation.
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Based in the United States, SSH hosts the annual healthcare simulation conference entitled “International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare” (IMSH) each year bringing together around 3,000-4,000 Simulation Educators, Administrators and Sim Techs for networking, educational courses, medical simulator exhibition opportunities and more. Vendors always in attendance include CAE Healthcare, Laerdal, Gaumard, EMS SimulationIQ, B-Line Medical, SIMStation (Level 3 Healthcare), KBPort, 3D Systems, Pocket Nurse and more!
The Society also provides the oldest research publication in the industry deemed the “Simulation in Healthcare Journal”, printed by Wolters Kluwer, which began in 2006. The peer-reviewed research journal is an interprofessional publication covering all domains within clinical simulation. The group also provides accreditation of simulation centers and certification of specialized simulation educators and operations specialists. Membership includes access to the journal and other online resources.
Other organizations dedicated to Healthcare Simulation include INACSL (dedicated to Nursing Simulation), SimGHOSTS (dedicated to Sim Techs), ASPiH United Kingdom, SESAM Europe, ASPE (Standardized Patients), and Simulation Australia, among other smaller regional organizations around the world.
Stemming from the 1998 Society for Technology in Anesthesia, in 2001 the inaugural International Meeting for Medical Simulation was held. The Society was officially founded in 2004 by clinical professionals advancing the use of simulation for education and training in healthcare. Eventually the organization changed its name in 2007 to include “healthcare” instead of “medicine” to better represent members in a variety of backgrounds including medicine, nursing, allied health, emergency medical services, researchers, and armed services.
SSH hopes to foster the expansion of simulation based technologies in modalities like manikins, virtual reality in medicine, audio video debriefing, augmented reality, standardized patients, specialized task training and more. The Society promotes these technologies and corresponding methodologies with the goal of improving patient safety and provider performance while reducing costs and medical errors.
Sections, Special Interest Groups (SIG), Affinity Groups, and Regional Groups
The SSH organization offers members the opportunity to connect with other simulation professionals in the same field or with similar interests. The purpose is to allow these individuals to share ideas, collaborate around healthcare simulation-based research, learning, and clinical practice.
Sections:
- Anesthesia
- Critical Care
- Directors
- Emergency Medicine
- Hospital Based Simulation Programs
- Nursing
- OB/GYN
- Pediatric
- Simulations Operations and Technology
- Virtual Simulation
Special Interest Groups (SIGS):
- Advanced Practice Providers
- Perioperative
- Pharmacy
- Standardized Patient
- Surgery
Affinity Groups: (Available to non-members)
- Disaster Simulation
- Distance Simulation
- Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
- Federal Medical Simulation Training Consortium
- Formal Training (Fellowships, Certificates, Masters) Programs in Healthcare SImulation
- Healthcare Systems Modeling & Simulation
- In Situ and Mobile Outreach Simulation
- Internal Medicine
- IPE
- Journal Club
- Low-Cost & Low-Resource
- Mindfulness
- New to Simulation
- Patient Safety and Simulation Collaborative
- Rehabilitation
- Safety II and Resilience Engineering
- Super-Sized Simulation Centers
- Value-Based Simulation
Regional Group
- Neurology in Simulation
Affiliated Organizations
The SSH organization forms official collaborative agreements with other organization that have a simulation focus to help them build strong relationships within the healthcare simulation community while creating broader awareness of their organizations. Working together, SSH and their affiliates are committed to advancing the field of healthcare simulation. SSH has affiliation agreements with:
Annual Meeting: International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH)
Every year the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSiH), hosts the International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) in a major city in the United States. Dedicated to healthcare simulation research and learning, the event provides an opportunity for “Simulation Champions” from around the world to come together to network with peers, learn from experts, and see the latest medical simulation innovations. IMSH occurs annually in January.
IMSH offers hundreds of industry-leading presentations, cementing the event’s place as the world’s premier healthcare simulation education learning event. Those interested in attending do not have to be a member of IMSH to attend. Benefits of attending include session content, multi-disciplinary education, vendor contacts, and hands-on workshops. The event will feature groundbreaking research regarding guidelines in healthcare simulation as well.
