The Winter Institute for Simulation, Education, and Research (WISER) is a state-of-the-art simulation training and research facility that serves both the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). In support of their mission to advance healthcare simulation and education, WISER offers a variety of tools and resources geared towards centers looking to develop, grow, and improve their delivery of simulation-based healthcare education programs. To fully assist in the management and administrative needs of these expanding centers, WISER offers the Simulation Information Management System (SIMS). Originally developed over 20 years ago by the experts at WISER, SIMS eases the burden of calendar management, data procurement, and curriculum integration by streamlining these processes at your center. This HealthySimulation.com article shares how the highly customizable, accessible, and intuitive features associated with WISER’s SIMS can improve the efficiency of growing and established simulation centers around the world.
SIMS Coordinates Scheduling and Strengthens Communication
“Ease of use was the selling point for me,” recounts one SIMS client, exemplifying how this all-in-one cloud-based system resolves the pain points associated with scheduling and communication across your simulation center. The scheduling capabilities of SIMS allow you to access and approve schedule requests from anywhere, across any device. For larger centers, the flexibility of this system supports scheduling all rooms, equipment, and personnel across multiple locations. Users of SIMS can also create class templates to further simplify the schedule request process, and the built-in alert system ensures your spaces are never double booked!
The customizable calendar views and displays for SIMS can be tailored to your preference, including the ability to subscribe to calendars for specific locations. Users can also display daily room schedules for a specific resource, providing pertinent information for instructors and participants alike. Additionally, users can create customizable event tags to organize and categorize their courses in a plethora of ways such as billable events, events that require specific equipment, or events that require specific staff.
To assist with communication across your center, SIMS can manually and automatically send customizable emails to all individuals involved in any class. On the operational side, this includes automatic enrollment notifications and event reminders to course participants and instructors. On the administrative side, automatic emails can notify you of schedule requests, when users complete events, and when events reach their enrollment capacity. Another useful communication feature allows users to create custom announcements on the main dashboard, alerting participants to inclement weather delays, class cancellations, or other necessary information. This email and communication functionality of SIMS ensures your program’s staff can easily communicate not only with each other, but with those that utilize your facility.
Curriculum Support and Data Reporting with SIMS
Not only does SIMS make scheduling and communication effortless, but this learning management system also provides curriculum support and data reporting capabilities. By supporting instructional PowerPoints and prerecorded lectures, as well as pre-and-post course quizzes, surveys, and evaluations, SIMS cultivates a one-stop learning experience for all course participants. While supporting the didactic content for your course, this system also simplifies the account creation and course registration process by supporting bulk enrollment without the risk of creating duplicate accounts. To make account management even easier, especially for centers affiliated with larger organizations, SIMS even supports single sign-on authentication!
The data reporting capabilities of SIMS seamlessly allow you to access and export quiz and survey responses, as well as roster reports that allow you to track course attendance and completion. Knowing who utilizes your center, and how often they utilize the center is vital for billing purposes and to illustrate the necessity of your center to your parent organization. With the utilization reporting ability of SIMS, users can easily keep track of different participant types, such as nursing students or practicing providers, while also monitoring room, simulator, and equipment utilization across encounter hours.
Built by simulationists, for simulationists, the vast capabilities of SIMS bring a positive, user-friendly experience for administrators, participants, and instructors alike. From scheduling and communication to curriculum support and data reporting, the adaptability and customization of SIMS is perfect for busy simulation centers with diverse staffing, equipment, and facility needs. “It’s built for our world,” recounts another SIMS client, impressed by how simulation-friendly SIMS is.
Find a SIMS Solution at IMSH 2025!
While you can always reach out to schedule a consultation or demonstration by contacting WISER directly, SIMS will also be featured at the 2025 International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) in Orlando, Florida! Find WISER at booth number 542, from January 10th – 14th to learn more about how SIMS can support the scheduling, reporting, and educational needs of your simulation center.
View the LEARN CE/CME Platform Webinar Professional Development for Healthcare Simulation Operations Specialists to learn more!
Additional WISER Resources
In addition to SIMS, WISER offers a variety of other resources to support the continual advancement of simulation centers and their staff. As a simulation center fully accredited by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) in all areas of expertise, WISER provides professional development opportunities designed for the entire healthcare simulation community, including TechSim Online and TechSim Onsite, Improving Simulation Instructional Methods (iSIM), and their Fellowship and Visiting Scholars Program.
Mapped to the SSH Certified Healthcare Simulation Operations Specialist (CHSOS) Exam, TechSim teaches novice simulation specialists best practices for supporting simulation-based healthcare education programs while offering CPD credits for both the onsite and online versions of the course. WISER’s iSIM course was developed in partnership with the Gordon Center for Simulation and Innovation in Education and is geared towards healthcare educators integrating simulation-based training in their curriculum. With this two-day hands-on program, participants learn all the foundational knowledge and skills needed to develop and deploy effective simulation-based healthcare education, including identifying objectives, designing realistic scenarios, creating accurate assessments, and leading debriefing sessions.
WISER is accepting applications to their SSH accredited Fellowship and Visiting Scholars Program. The Fellowship Program enables individuals to work alongside WISER leadership to learn how to develop and manage a simulation center while also offering a highly customizable curriculum that encourages individuals to identify their own goals of study and areas of focus. This program is flexible and can accommodate individuals interested in joining WISER for as little as a month or as long as two years! These tools and programs supported by WISER are a testament to their mission of educating future generations of simulationists and healthcare educators interested in delivering quality simulation-based education programs.
