The Sim Cafe~ Interview with Gil Vallejo

Mr. Vallejo is a Military Analyst Simulation SME (Contractor) working with the Medical Simulation and Training Program Management Office (MST PMO), Program Executive Office Medical Systems (PEO MS) Defense Health Agency (DHA) in Orlando Florida where he brings his applicable experience in both clinical and Combat environments to help advise, educate and promote, the use of medical simulation devices and systems.

Gilberto Vallejo or “Gil” as his friends call him, is a retired US Army First Sergeant/ Combat Medic with over 35 years’ experience as a results driven leader and trainer in Emergency Health Care, specializing in Combat Trauma Simulation and Academic Based Simulation Training. Mr. Vallejo has held several management positions as a Site Lead, Director and Program Manager overseeing multiple Medical training facilities worldwide. 

Additionally, Mr. Vallejo has assisted in the development, design and operations of over 30+ Medical Simulation Training facilities, Combat Training Lanes, Medevac Helicopter Simulators and environments incorporating multiple systems and Artificial Stressors along with multiple levels of medical and Tactical Combat Casualty Care Curriculum for the most realistic training in both civilian and tactical environments.

Mr. Vallejo’s career path has allowed him to conduct business with Industry, Government and Academia in multiple countries such as South Korea, Colombia, Australia, Dubai, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Belgium, and across the United States.

Mr. Vallejo enjoys playing the sax, listening to Latin jazz, going to car shows with his family and teaching his grandkids to fish. Gil is married to his high school sweetheart whom he met while in elementary school and together they have 3 beautiful daughters Aarial, Ileetza, and Anais. 

LinkedIn: https:  //www.linkedin.com/search/results/all/?heroEntityKey=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAAAbKnvIBjlUIeSI8gqki5K2FEYRSSHu6i-Q&keywords=gilberto%20vallejo&origin=RICH_QUERY_SUGGESTION&position=0&searchId=9bf4231d-0a5f-498a-b7c4-d301da1a317a&sid=Kq%3A

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Transcript

Disclaimer: 0:00

The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of anyone at Innovative Sim Solutions or our sponsors.

NeoSim Ad: 0:14

This episode of The Sim Cafe is being sponsored by NeoSim AG. NeoSim AG is thrilled to launch in North America at IMSH in 2023. NeoSim AG is the first and only company in the world with an autonomous lung simulation for adults and pediatrics. NeoSim AG is a Swiss company founded by experts, passionate about lung physiology and mechanical ventilation. S top by Booth 447 at IMSH in 2023 in Orlando and meet LuSi the neonatal lung simulator. LuSi is the first and only autonomous simulator to use real-time artificial intelligence. Please come by and meet the team committed to revolutionizing simulation in lung physiology.

Intro: 1:09

Welcome to The Sim Cafe, a podcast produced by the team at Innovative Sim Solutions, edited by Shelly Houser. Join our host, Deb Tauber, as she sits down with subject matter experts from across the globe to reimagine clinical education and the use of simulation. So pour yourself a cup of relaxation, sit back, tune in, and learn something new from The SIM Cafe.

Deb: 1:41

Welcome to another episode of The Sim Cafe. Today we are truly blessed to have Gilberto Vallejo. He's a military analyst simulation contractor working at the medical simulation and training program management office, MSTPMO program, executive Office Medical Systems, defense Health Agency, DHA in Orlando, Florida, where he brings his applicable experience from both clinical and combat environments to help advise, educate, and promote the use of medical simulation devices and systems. And what would you like me to call you during this interview?

Gil: 2:25

Gil, please call me Gil. My friends call me Gil. Everybody calls me Gil. If I heard Gilberto, I think I was in trouble with my mom, but, uh, okay.

Deb: 2:34

<laugh>. All right. Well, thank you and welcome to the show. We really appreciate you being a guest. And why don't you tell our listeners a little bit more about yourself, and then we'll get into some of the interview questions.

Gil: 2:46

Well, like I said, my friends call me Gil, and I've been doing medical simulation for, uh, quite some time now. Actually, altogether, I've probably been doing it all my life, uh, starting as a kid, but as a true manager of it, I, gosh, it's been a while. About 35 years ago, I started doing medical simulation in a sense. I started working with some designs of equipment training, devices and techniques and training. Of course, I've been married for about 36 years at that time, where with my lovely wife. I have three beautiful daughters. She was my high school sweetheart, and she's been with me this whole way. So many of the techniques I got to, uh, discuss and talk about. I guess she saw it firsthand and she would quickly tell me whether it worked or not, but that's pretty much about it. I guess one last thing. I play the saxophone and I love Latin jazz. Those are my, my hobbies and I guess muscle cars too. So that's my personal side of me.

Deb: 3:38

Thank you. Thank you. And thank you for your service. I see your flag behind you, and thank you for your service.

Gil: 3:44

Thank you.

Deb: 3:46

So why don't you share with our listeners essentially how you got into simulation? Like how did you, how'd you get into it?

Gil: 3:55

Sure. Actually, um, to excellent question. You know, as a child, we all go outside and we play, and we used to play war games and army games, so we were already simulating at such a young age, you know, something that nobody even thinks about. And then, um, in 1990, uh, I became a flight medic. But, but think about it, you that whole time, when I joined the army back in 1983, we were already simulating, we were simulating combat. They have that saying train as you fight and stuff. So we were simulating, but again, it didn't sink in yet. So in 1990 when I became a flight medic, I actually went from Colorado Springs to Honduras in a helicopter. It took 29 and a half hours. But again, that's a, that's a story for, for another time. But while I was in Colorado, they used simulation to train me. They, that's when the words started. I started hearing simulation and scenario and stuff. And then of course they would have these crew chiefs that would volunteer to be the, the patients. And you already know those are, those are those standardized patients. And believe me, they were voluntold more than volunteered to be the patients. So we used them to get my training, my medical procedures, my practices on them, how to communicate with them. When it came to simulators, my first simulator, believe it or not, was a big giant log. It was about five foot long, about 150 to 200 pounds. We drew a face on it and we would get up in a helicopter with it, throw it outside the helicopter on the side of a cliff or a mountain, and then the crew would say, all right, Gil, you gotta figure out how to get that thing off the side of that mountain and also transport it to the hospital. So it's a great way to come together as a team to work together. So you're working together as a team. I get lowered down in a hoist. I have to wrap this log woody up and send them on up on the, on a hoist up to the back of a helicopter and then transported to the hospital. And that's probably the first time I ever ever actually worked with a simulator. Now, since then, I'm sure you're aware, simulations come quite a long way and stuff. So I ended up working 2005. They opened up the Army's first MSTC, the Medical Simulation Training Center. A bunch of people smarter than me. They got together and said, we need a great way to train. Everybody that works with or is involved with simulation understands that that is a phenomenal way to train individuals to you. You capture that knowledge and are able to retain it in a visual way and feeling and a training. So, so we used that. And believe it or not, that MSTC allowed me to start as an instructor. I worked there as an instructor back in again, I started in 2005 and three years later I was actually the program manager managing 27 of those worldwide training within that MSTC I was able to help. Of course, when I saved me, it wasn't just me, it was a team of us, team of excellent instructors that were all combat veterans. We got to work with simulators, we practiced new techniques, we grabbed new toys to go out there. We even added, uh, an actual helicopter that had crashed. We were able to use our connections to get it in the MSTC, to learn how to shoot, move, communicate, and then treat that patient, keep our head on a swivel and, and take care of that patient, and then get them back out of that danger zone into a safe environment, treat them and get them to the hospital. So those are the kind of things that we did, and that's how I actually really got into, into medical simulation.

Deb: 7:17

So what I heard you say in, let me just make sure I'm right. You guys used a, a log, an actual log, like a tree log. Yeah. That was a patient to start out before simulators. That is interesting. Thanks for sharing that little bit of history with me.

Gil: 7:33

<laugh>, I'll tell you, that's one picture. I have many pictures. I wish I had that picture to show people. This is, that shows my age. This is what I started with. And then of course, now today, the technology's a beautiful thing.

Deb: 7:48

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Do you have a favorite or most impactful simulation story that you'd like to share with our guests?

Gil: 7:58

You know, that's a, a good question. So, let's see. Um, I've had the chance to work in, like I said, everything from design concepts and everything. I even had the opportunity. I, I helped build a medical simulation training center in Al Manad in United Arab Emirates and stuff. But that still wasn't the pinnacle of my training. One of the most beautiful things that I, I was involved with was I started working as a contractor medical simulation of I'd say about four or five years ago in Afghanistan. They expected me to teach these Afghan soldiers, the medics, how to become flight medics and how to deal with patients. There was zero medical pieces of equipment that were being used for training. There were, there was just no funds for it out there. So then I had a friend of mine who I'm still friends with now today, he had heard about simulation. I had always spoke about simulation, so he knew I was interested in it. Well, he found out that there was these simulators that were out there in the field that they were at another base camp. So after a couple questions, I figured out what company it was and what model they were. So having such a hard time trying to get that for get that unit to release them. And they were just sitting there. So we're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment sitting in an office, never being used. My commander, who was the commander of the SMW, he was an Air Force commander. This guy was brilliant. And uh, he probably should have been a politician. He was able to communicate with the other commander at the other installation. And he actually got them. And the way I found out he got them was I went on a mission down in Southern Afghanistan. And by the time I got back, he just looked at me with a smile on his face. He says, Hey, I got a present for you. It's in your office. So of course I walk in there and there they were all these simulators that I was allowed to use. Now it sounds like this was a great thing, but the bad part about it was these simulators were so advanced and we were in Afghanistan, not even power, electricity was standard over there. It was really bad. So here we have simulators that are about a hundred thousand dollars a piece, no maintenance, no way to, uh, download software. Of course they were designed for, for ACLS and all these advanced techniques that these soldiers would've never been able to use. And not even the equipment to do these things. And, and of course now you have to try to translate, have to try to translate using my translator to try to tell them and teach them how to use a simulator. So that being said, the commander knew, again, we were, he was a really good commander. He said, Hey Gil, I know another way we might be able to get some money and stuff. It's through NATO. It was called a NATO, ANA, Afghan National Army Funds. So, uh, I took it as a challenge and I sat down and started having to write all these letters and get all these permissions and prove that medical simulation was the way to go for training again. You know, and I know that to see it, to do it, to practice it, that is definitely something that you can retain. Uh, I felt sorry for my translator because he had to translate all these terms for me on this paperwork. But we ended up putting it together. I wrote the, the information and my focus was the nurses that were actually on site. These nurses were so well trained, but they were not utilized to their capacity. So here I am working in the hospital training medics. Only the males were allowed to do the training and they had the female medics, the nurses, they were only allowed to clean the offices, bring us tea when we were training and stuff, and, and just to, just simple stuff that they, you know, that had nothing to do with simulation training. They were just typing letters and that was it. So I used that, contacted NATO within the paperwork, showed them that I need this equipment to help these nurses to continue their training. So their skills would not deteriorate. After I submitted the paperwork, about three months later, it was approved. I couldn't believe it. They funded the entire project to and include simulators, training devices, partial task trainers and moulage. I never told the hospital that I had done this. It was approved. They shipped off all the equipment when it got there. I'll tell you to, to see the smile on their faces to, for them to realize, my goodness, we are really gonna get some serious training here. They were there every day on time, on target, and we're ready to train to meet. That was satisfying to them. It was satisfying. That to me is an excellent simulation story.

Deb: 12:16

Thank you for sharing that. That's very inspirational.

Gil: 12:19

Thank you.

Deb: 12:21

Gil. I'm gonna ask you another question. What happened during the pandemic? What were you doing during the Covid pandemic and any lessons learned during, did you lock down or what was up with Gil?

Gil: 12:32

You know, so actually we've been going on now almost three years out of office. Every now and then we get a chance to go back. Simulation, you, you know, anybody in simulation, it evolves so fast. That is just an extreme pace. So trying to keep up with the technology was quite difficult. The silver lining behind coming home and working for my home here. Now I get multiple computers. I could really focus on doing market research. I could really focus on new technologies that were out there. I work with a group of people, they're engineers, contractors, the pm he's been doing this guys for decades, he said, so I'm surrounded by them. If you were to sit down and talk to these individuals, honestly, you would actually think that these people were medics in some way, shape, or form. But what it is that they understand medical training, they understand that the equipment has to, to match the curriculum that we are doing. It cannot be altered. If there are additional steps in simulation, you are now altering the training. These individuals work and make decisions that save lives. They're so important. Now, to a common person, they would think that, my goodness, that's a really stressful environment. But I can assure you it's not every one of those individuals to and include me. We have a passion for this child. We love the job. We love talking about simulation, how we can improve it, what new toys are out there that we can bring in to train the soldiers. Now I keep using the soldiers cause that's my focus here, but it's not just the soldiers. We deal with hospitals, clinics, aviation. So from the point of injury all the way through the, the continuum of care all the way to the last level to the hospitals and to include the VA hospitals. So that's what I did. I focused on keeping up to date with all the equipment and informing my bosses and my teams. Let me just say this, I'm on their team<laugh>, you know that, uh, cuz they're the ones responsible as government personnel. I advise them on what's out there and, and it seems to work out very well.

Deb: 14:36

Excellent. Now can you please share with our listeners the biggest thing you'd like them to know? Something that when you learned it, it changed the way you practice essentially a personal aha moment.

Gil: 14:51

Wow. Um, so my aha moments, the military, the government actually many, many, many institutions pride themselves on education, pride themselves on teaching and training individuals. Of course the government, the military, they focus on creating leaders because they have to be proficient in their job. They have to be able to communicate and get that language across to be able to touch everybody. Now when I mean touch everybody, cuz everything I do and as a soldier and any leader out there knows, they have to be able to grasp that soldier and teach them correctly, cuz they eventually will be a leader someday. Well, unfortunately I had seen a couple techniques out there and I picked up a few bad habits myself. And I remember one day I was talking to a soldier and uh, lemme just say I'm not proud at that moment in the way I communicated with that soldier, especially now that I look back up on how I had done it. Well, I can immediately tell at that moment that that soldier was not happy when the way I was communicating with them. But at the same time, when I saw that, it hit me. It struck me. I was like, wow, I'm not communicating with them properly. And that soldier responded to me in the exact same way I approached him again, you talk about an aha moment right there. At that very moment, I completely reverted back to the training that I received from the army. And I adjusted using the military term, I adjusted fire. I had to, to reapproach this individual right there on the spot. So I quickly changed tactics. I, uh, started to speak to him and I could see the whole, the whole environment just completely changed. And now we were communicating that at that point, like I said, when I saw that, I realized I have to do this all the time. I have to treat individuals as individuals. I can't treat everybody the same way. I have taken that even now today. I still use it when I meet people or I train or I advise. I, I try to study that individual, try to communicate with them. And if I'm communicating with them, I'm doing the right thing. If I am not, I have to quickly change. Cause my focus is to get that message across a mistake can be very dangerous in, in medical training. That's something I don't want to happen to anybody.

Deb: 17:03

Thank you. So to summarize, I think what I heard you say was that you were on your own working on a one-on-one encounter and you suddenly recognized how your body language, your tone cadence, may have affected the receiving end of your message and you quickly pivoted and then learned that there was a much more effective way to communicate with people.

Gil: 17:31

Absolutely, absolutely. Communication is just so important. Whether just, like you said, whether it's verbal or visual, just, you have to be able to see that and understand it and, and truly know what's going on at that moment. You do not want to lose anybody. You know, that, that's just, that's tragedy in itself. If you cannot take that home on, I mean, think about it, we even as parents do that with our children. We gotta figure out what makes them tick. If we can do that and find that we are doing the job and we are doing it well.

Deb: 18:01

Excellent. And I'm sure that that had a lot to do with your trajectory of success within the military, that recognition of that.

Gil: 18:09

Yeah, I tell you, it's, I was very proud. Uh, I, I tell you, I love the army. And if I had to do it all over again, honest to goodness, I really would. I learned so much. I traveled all over the world, even from them. And now I would not have this job without what I've learned. Uh, and again, I give all credit to the army and even before them, of course, you know, my wife putting up with me, my mother always being there to support, uh, just, they were always there for me. And I continue to keep that motivation going. It's just put me in places today where I can, uh, feel proud of myself and of course they feel proud of me. That's what makes it feel good.

Deb: 18:43

Thank you. Thank you. Now, Gil, is there anything you wanna ask me?

Gil: 18:49

Yes. Um, I know you've had the chance to interview so many people. I guess one of the things I'd like to ask you, all those individuals that you've interviewed, what's the one thing that really stood out for you? What is something that you heard or someone you've met, you know, to say, wow, this is really, really a cool story.

Deb: 19:07

Thank you for asking that. And this has been an empowering journey, a gift that I have been blessed to have the opportunity to do. I have gotten so much information from every guest. I always, always learned something from them. And I'm so grateful for all the things that I've learned. Thank you for asking. Thank you for being a guest and a listener.

Gil: 19:35

Well, thank you. I feel honored just being here, especially knowing so many people that you've interviewed, you know, just to be part of that, that group to say, Hey, I was, I was on that show, you know, with Deb, you know, I got interviewed, I got to meet her. So thank you. And, and this is just a wonderful thing that you're doing, getting that simulation word out there.

Deb: 19:53

Oh, well, it's, it's, uh, labor of love. Believe me. I look forward to seeing you at I M S H.

Gil: 20:00

Excellent. Well, I will definitely be there, uh, looking forward to seeing you also.

Deb: 20:04

Yep, yep. Now, if our listeners wanna get ahold of you, where would they go to,

Gil: 20:09

I guess the best way to get ahold of me, obviously, uh, your blog, you know, you, the numbers up there, it's uh, it's a nice thing or, or LinkedIn. LinkedIn is truly the best way to get ahold of me. It's got my personal number, my email, uh, and LinkedIn. You know, of course you can message. And from there you can reach me anytime. I'm available 24/7.

Deb: 20:27

All right. Thank you very much and happy simulating.

Gil: 20:31

Thank you. And God bless you.

Deb: 20:34

God bless you.

NeoSim tag: 20:36

Thanks to NeoSim AG for sponsoring this week's episode. And remember, check them out at Booth 447 at IMSH 2023 in Orlando and say hi to LuSi.

Outro: 20:55

Thanks for joining us here at The Sim Cafe. We hope you enjoyed. Connect with us at www.Innovativesimsolutions.com and be sure to hit that like and subscribe button so you never miss an episode of The Sim Cafe.