The use of realistic medical simulation has expanded worldwide over the last decade.  Such technology is playing an increasing role in medical education not merely because simulator sessions are enjoyable, but because they can provide an enhanced environment for experiential learning and interpersonal skill development.  High-fidelity patient simulators - full body mannequin-robots that breathe, talk, blink, and respond “like a real person” - allow students of all levels to “practice” medicine without risk, providing a natural framework for the integration of basic and clinical science in a safe environment.  Often described as “flight simulation for doctors,” the rationale, utility, and range of medical simulations have been well-described elsewhere.  Yet, the pathway to institutional implementation and testing of new simulator programs in undergraduate medical education - particularly for basic science teaching - has received relatively little attention. 

Detailed in this IAMSE Audio Seminar is an example of how Harvard Medical School established an on-campus simulator program for undergraduate medical students, building on the work of the Center for Medical Simulation in Boston.  As an overarching structure for the process, faculty and residents developed a simulator-based “medical education service” like any other medical teaching service, but designed exclusively to help students learn on the simulator alongside a physician-mentor, on demand.  Over 400 students and 15 instructors participated in the initial year of the program.  Initial evaluations among both preclinical and clinical students suggest that simulation is highly accepted and increasingly demanded by students.  For some learners, simulation may allow complex information to be understood and retained more efficiently than traditional methods.  Moreover, the process outlined suggests that simulation can be integrated into existing curricula of almost any medical school or teaching hospital in an efficient and cost-effective manner. 
 
Simulator-based case-materials developed under a grant from the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation to the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology and the Center for Medical Simulation can found at www.harvardmedsim.org