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The Sim Cafe~
The Sim Cafe~
Revolutionizing Patient Safety: The Journey of Filmmaker Mike Eisenberg
Experience the intersection of patient safety and cinematic storytelling with filmmaker Mike Eisenberg, as he shares his journey from creating the impactful documentary "To Err is Human" to his new project "The Pitch: Patient Safety's Next Generation." Inspired by his father, John Eisenberg, a trailblazer in healthcare quality, Mike sheds light on the positive strides in patient safety and how technology is revolutionizing the field. Expect to be moved and motivated by stories of innovation and the relentless pursuit of improvement in healthcare.
Discover the transformative power of simulation technologies in healthcare education through the lens of Mike's filmmaking. From the bustling halls of a SimGhosts conference to the cutting-edge simulation labs at iEXCEL in Omaha, Nebraska, Mike's narrative captures the dynamic shift in training methodologies, especially in a post-COVID world. Learn about the resilience and adaptability of young learners as they navigate new educational technologies, and understand the critical role of accessible, round-the-clock learning tools.
Embark on the challenging journey of film distribution with Mike as he navigates financial hurdles and leverages community support to bring "The Pitch" to light. From crowdfunding efforts and the backing of industry leaders like Laerdal and CAE, on to Err is Human to utilizing strategies that ensure the Pitch reaches its audience. Engage in thought-provoking post-screening discussions and get the scoop on upcoming pre-release events and official streaming dates on platforms like iTunes and Amazon Prime. Mike’s story is a testament to the power of community, technology, and unwavering dedication to patient safety.
Film website: thepitchdocumentary.com
https://talltaleproductions.com/the-pitch-documentary/
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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. This week's podcast is sponsored by Innovative Sim Solutions. Are you interested in the journey of simulation accreditation? Do you plan to design a new simulation center or expand your existing center? What about taking your program to the next level? Give Deb Tauber from Innovative Sim Solutions a call to support you in all your simulation needs. With years of experience, Deb can coach your team to make your simulation dreams become reality. Learn more at www. innovativesimsolutions. com or just reach out to Deb Contact today. Welcome to The Sim Cafe, a podcast produced by the team at Innovative Sim Solutions, edited by Shelly Houser. Join our host,, deb Tauber, and co-host Jerrod Jeffries as they sit 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 Tauber:Welcome to another episode of The Sim Cafe. Today we're here with Jerrod Jeffries and Mike Eisenberg. Thank you so much for being with us today, Mike.
Mike Eisenberg:Thank you for having me.
Deb Tauber:Thank you, why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?
Mike Eisenberg:Well, I am a filmmaker out of Chicago and in 2018, 2019, we released a film called Two Errors Human, which was our first sort of foray into the patient safety and healthcare space, where we looked at the big picture of healthcare and patient safety. Where are we now? How far does the system have to go? But approaching it in a positive way, looking at the people doing the work to improve patient safety, not doing that headline chasing you're going to die if you go to a hospital because there are evil people everywhere, which sells sometimes. But I think we had an opportunity to really take advantage of a space that people don't operate in very much when they tell stories about healthcare, and that's the positive stories of improvement.
Mike Eisenberg:And you know, we were able to screen that film 250, probably now closer to 300 times across the country.
Mike Eisenberg:We had nine different countries too, and it was very clear to me that patient safety was important to a lot of people.
Mike Eisenberg:And it took me on a journey that I continue today, where I speak about patient safety from my perspective, which is a little different, you know, in the filmmaking side, interviewing people, not being specifically, you know, from the medical field myself. And now we are getting set to release our follow-up documentary, which is called the Pitch Patient Safety's Next Generation, and this is about technology's role in healthcare and patient safety moving forward, looking at the future and looking at how do we capitalize on these technologies and innovations that other industries seem to be utilizing so well and do that in the patient safety space. And we were fortunate enough to have the support of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation to make that film, and they gave us so much freedom to do it our way. So it wasn't, like you know, this overcast that sometimes financial support can have in filmmaking. It was a very, very good opportunity for us to continue our journey in patient safety in filmmaking, and I think that the reception so far has been really good, but we haven't even released it yet, so a lot more to come.
Jerrod Jeffries:There's a lot there. So one congrats on the upcoming film, The Pitch. I know that there was a very you have a lot of super fans from the first and I'm sure there's a lot of anticipation here coming up the second. But I think, even before we get into some of the film pieces, what was your draw or desire to be do stuff within patient safety or simulation, or what came from that?
Mike Eisenberg:That really is a that has a personal history, but not one that you might expect. Right, it's not my personal experience with medical harm or a family member. It's actually my dad, John Eisenberg, who was the director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality until he passed in 2002. And I was a teenager at the time. I didn't have a full grasp of what his career was all about. I knew he worked in healthcare and he was on TV sometimes. He talked to Bill Clinton here and there and he was important. But when he passed away I started to see how many people he impacted in his life. They all kind of came out of the woodwork and it was really powerful.
Mike Eisenberg:But 15 to 20 years later I really started getting into my groove as a filmmaker and looking around for stories that I could really sink my teeth into, and it sort of reminded me of the fact that every year I would get an article about AHRQ possibly being defunded and wanted to make a film about the agency and what they do, so I could sort of share with people this thing not a lot of people know about.
Mike Eisenberg:That's so vital for the quality of healthcare in our country. And when we started making that film we realized very quickly like there's a much bigger picture about patient safety and one that people don't often talk about and, as I said before, in a positive storytelling. I think it's something that I take from my father, where he was not about that negative blame and shame culture of healthcare at the time. He really wanted to promote how do we improve and how do we get better, and the best way to do that is to show what works, not what doesn't, and that's really the backdrop of what started this journey. But now I feel this sort of obligation, not a burden. But it is joyful that I get to continue his legacy in my own way and I know it means a lot to my family and I take pride in the fact that I get to do it this way.
Jerrod Jeffries:Certainly. I think that's wonderful and I think that there's shifts within generations, of course, but to be able to tell that story but also have it disseminated and educate people, that's the most important and I think that, as much as within new generations, you know, film or movies or some form of multimedia in terms of articles are almost dead and people don't want to read. But when it comes to watching, whatever it may be and that can be cut up in different synopses and be able to bite size, that is just the start, but also seeing the full feature is very different as well but also seeing the full feature is very different as well.
Mike Eisenberg:Well, I also think that that brings you into the simulation side of things too, where you did ask about that and I sort of avoided it, not intentionally, but when we were making the first film without the sort of knowledge of what patient safety world is about, we went in very blind and explored and we spent three years making that film. So it was a lot of digging and clawing and finding stories, and one that really resonated with me was simulation in healthcare, and so we had that played a fairly big role in our previous film. How do you not only how do you use sort of the hi-fi technologies at the time to train clinicians so that they don't have to practice on people, but also how do you use simulation in a lo-fi way to train the communication and the way that clinicians and doctors physicians are actually talking to patients about errors and about things that don't always go right. That was really important and impressive to me and part of the system that I hadn't seen before, that I wanted to see more of, and now you know, fast forwarding to this film, the pitch, it was very clear to me that you can't tell the story of technology's role in healthcare, while also avoiding simulation, and we wanted to tell new stories. We didn't want to just do the same movie, but simulation was one where it was like, okay, we have to come back to that and really focusing in a little bit more about how to use the tools that the next generation of clinicians have been using their whole lives.
Mike Eisenberg:Right, these are 20, 21 year old kids who've had a phone in their pocket their whole life, or however you put it nine years old, 12 years old, whatever, and they expect to be taught the way that they see the world.
Mike Eisenberg:And it is the simulation community that I think is taking that responsibility.
Mike Eisenberg:And we were able to show that with IXL in Omaha, Nebraska, where we featured that for a good portion of the new film, and it really shows you how technology and simulation go hand in hand with education and training the next generation.
Mike Eisenberg:So it was really fun to see that, and a funny backstory sidebar is I had gone to SimGhosts to speak about patient safety, and this was literally last year or what was maybe just two years ago, I don't remember, but they were at IXL or they were at Omaha and IXL's venue, and that's when I sort of saw what was going on there. We had a much smaller story about education and simulation and technology, and I saw what was going on there and I came back to Chicago and I told my teammates that we have to scrap that other story as much as I love it, because there's so much happening here that you can really rally like a whole portion of the film around it and I'm glad we did it because I think that's been one of the parts of the film that's resonated most with our early audiences.
Jerrod Jeffries:So it's really cool to see that yeah, and I was there in Omaha with the sim conference and, as I was kind of mentioning, it's like you converted a lot of fans as super fans, because I think that you really strike a chord. So even all the editing and cutting and redoing it because three years is a long time to create something, obviously, uh, but I think you've really understood part of the demographic. And back to the simulation piece. It's like it really strikes a chord or a point where people are like yes, this is the bridge between healthcare and technology, and the simulation aspect is, of course, there's a lot of geeks, there's a lot of nerds, but at the same time, there's a lot of coolness factor. No-transcript, and I think how you portray it does bring these aspects to light in a in a very tangible way.
Mike Eisenberg:Yeah, I obviously have no personal attachment to this stimulation world, but it is very clear to me that it's important. And that's filmmaker bias too. Like I have the power to tell whatever story I want, as long as my team agrees with me too. But it's like you know, we can take this wherever we want. In this new film, we only gave ourselves a year to make it, so it was a bit intimidating. How are we going to tell a story this big within a year? And I think in some ways that created a nice vacuum of focus. We didn't question ourselves as much maybe. I think there's always going to be stories you miss.
Mike Eisenberg:Whether you spend 20 years making a movie or one year, there's never enough time, and I think what's really important is committing to a goal and committing to an idea that you want to share with people, and not pretending. Like our movie, any movie has to be the end, all be all. It answers all the questions, and especially when you're talking about an area of healthcare that is not finished, like even people who make a good patient safety solution like you can't just stop there. They have to keep perfecting it and keep making sure it's working, and I think that's what has fascinated me about the SIM space is when it came back to it five years later. And post COVID which is really like 30 years later in human years, is like it's different, but it hasn't been reinvented.
Mike Eisenberg:Seeing what worked and what didn't work during COVID pandemic, I think has changed healthcare permanently in many ways for the better, because it was a forced realization that it can't all be this sort of in this lo-fi, in-person thing. We have to digitize healthcare. We have to find a way to bring healthcare to people who can't come to us. I'm speaking on behalf of healthcare people but, like the embrace of telehealth, I think, created a lot more openness from the healthcare industry to adopt technologies that are a little bit more offline and not as in-person. I think that will turn out to be a good thing in the end, but it does open up some scary doors at the same time, and when you're training people how to use the tools they're going to use when they're working with patients, it's super important to be able to just always be doing that.
Mike Eisenberg:So my point is it used to be well you have to go to a lecture for an hour and then you have to go in work on a cadaver. If you're in that space in healthcare for hours, you can only do so much in one day. But with the way that people use technology today to learn, it doesn't all have to be in person, and if you can start to explore the new areas of healthcare that we saw come to the forefront in 2020, 2022, etc. Like the kids know how to use it, they know how to do it. They don't have to always be there to be learning, and they and if and the good ones, the hungry ones, want to always be learning. So making those tools available to people, I think, is something that we saw a lot of when we were making this film. That's super cool and a really creative way to make learning a 24 hour thing and not just while you're in the room.
Jerrod Jeffries:One. I do love how you use the kids.
Mike Eisenberg:I know I'm still coping with the fact that I am, but I'm not young. I'm 40 now almost 40, and the 20-year-old kid in college feels like an infant to me. But I understand the tools, which I think helps put me in a good position as a filmmaker. I understand these tools, I use them every day, day so I can see it.
Jerrod Jeffries:but yeah, I mean, they're kids yeah, so shifting gears slightly, though, is what? First one, three years. Second one, you gave yourselves a year timeline. What are some of the biggest challenges? What did you focus on or what did you do differently to kind of, yeah, tell me a little bit about the process for both films.
Mike Eisenberg:Well, I was just actually going back through some of my archives because I had to clear some space on the Google Drive, but I found all these images I had taken of the dry erase boards that went months and months of reiterations with the first film, two-eared Suman, and these outlines that constantly changed and we made it as we went, and I'm the editor too, so I have the opportunity to see how things are working and not working and then follow through on that. But the big reason at the end of the day was money. Filmmaking costs a lot of money and for the first film we had none. We were just going out of pocket. We did a crowdfunding campaign, which was still somewhat active at the time. You know, nobody aims to crowdfund for movies anymore, but in 2015, 16, they were and we had got some support from family and friends and people who knew my dad who wanted to see this happen, and that was great and we're very fortunate to have that network. But it didn't get us so far. It got us to the starting line, really, and from there we were able to get grants, which then you know if you've ever gotten a grant before, you know it's not something they just click a button and send you money. It's like months and months of waiting and waiting and then suddenly they call you and then it's months and months before you even see that money. So we were able then at the end of the line to also get some support from the simulation community. We didn't put simulation in the film because of this, but we were able to show companies like Laerdal, CA all the work that we had done, and they were gracious enough to sort of help us get past the finish line of finishing the film so that then we could get a distributor to put it on platforms like iTunes and Amazon Prime. And we did screenings out of pocket.
Mike Eisenberg:There's fees that go into the booking of the film, but that's a big part of the process of making a film like this. It's like once you finish it, now what? And so that journey the three-year journey was really five years Because we finished the film in three years, but the next two years are really where it's at. If you want your film to have legs and make it to people in the areas where they need to see it, you can't stop once you finish making a film, even if you get a distributor. It's not enough to just put it online and say, look, I made that movie, no one's going to see it.
Mike Eisenberg:And I think some filmmakers have a lot of success because their films are sort of zeitgeist topics and people are going to be talking about it on Twitter and it generates itself. But the reality here and I think anybody listening knows is patient safety is not the number one topic on people's minds outside of that world, and so it was important to us to realize that, yes, we are filmmakers and we want to have traditional success, but if we really want to see this film about patient safety have an impact where it should, we have to bring it to them, and so we've copied that with this new film. We've copied that approach, and so what we're doing now is we're booking screenings, right, we're reaching out to hospitals, and some of them find out about the film, naturally. But we we reach out to the hospitals, we reach out to the in this case, startups and incubators and and the tech world giants that might be able to host the screening, and, on top of all that, every college, every university that has a medical division or even an entrepreneurship wing, they need to be able to see this film, and so we offer the film as a screening opportunity and we work with all of them very one-on-one, individually, to get the right plan in place to screen the film and they will have a copy of the film that they can screen. That's something they can license with us. And then we manage them, help them put that thing together so that it's the right screening.
Mike Eisenberg:And after the screening is a panel discussion, whether it's one person like a lecturer or something, or whether it's a Q&A in a very open environment. That's where the power of documentary really takes off. Conversation after the film. You know how many times have you watched a documentary at home by yourself and at the end of it you just wish you had somebody to talk to about that topic. You got to wait till you go to work, or you got to wait till you get a family gathering to tell them about this film. That's why it's so important, especially with a topic that really inspires change or hopes to, to have the people who are at the fingertips have that conversation after they watch it.
Deb Tauber:Now, where have you had the? Released it already.
Mike Eisenberg:So, as of our conversation today, we've had screenings across the country. We were able to screen it at SimGhosts this year. That was great. We've been at a couple of symposiums and conferences and a couple of hospitals like Mount Sinai in New York, and we even actually had a screening in Australia last week. And I think about I'm looking at right now 12 or 15 screenings in the next month, and September is when it's going to start to pick up, probably. But we also are doing our own little pre-release screening tour and so this will be time sensitive for people listening. But if you're in Chicago on September 4th or New York on September 5th or DC on the 11th of September or Boston on the 12th of September or on the 17th year in Palo Alto, we're having screenings of the film with myself and Kaylee, our producer. We'll be there and we'll have a special panel discussion afterwards. It's really about celebrating the release of the film and getting people to see it before it's out. That's really special and exciting, but we'll continue to do screenings well beyond that.
Deb Tauber:The name of the film is the Pitch. When it does go live, where would our listeners be able to find it?
Mike Eisenberg:Well, it's for your SEO and search help. The Pitch -Patient Safety's Next Generation is the full title, but if you search and see our website, thepitchdocumentary. com, we're going to keep that updated all the time with screening information and any other news that might come up. But the film will release on the 17th of September on iTunes and Amazon Prime and then other platforms where you might buy or rent a film, like if you use a Roku or use other devices like that, and if you have cable network or cable TV, you usually can dig around and buy, rent movies. It would be there too, and over the course of the next few months or year even it will hopefully trickle onto other platforms, if we're lucky. So it should be out there and available for people. But if they want to host the screening for their organization, the best thing to do is go to our website and contact us. It goes right to me and we'll help those people get a screening of the film, and that's really where it shines, I think wonderful.
Jerrod Jeffries:And one last question for me is what are some of the main points you hope for viewers to take away after even watching the first film or the second film, the pitch and such?
Mike Eisenberg:well, you know it is sort of a sequel, and so the first film does lay out a lot of the groundwork of what patient safety is and where the healthcare industry is today, but you don't have to watch it in order to sort of understand this film. It's not that kind of a sequel, but we don't spend as much time in this film going over all that information and data and shocking numbers. This one is really about how the industry has to change. Our healthcare industry has to change to catch up to other industries that prioritize safety and, in doing so, looking at the technology space and innovation space. And what I love about our new film is that we follow the story of this one guy. His name's Ritam and he is the founder of Aletheia, which is an AI machine learning startup that focuses on early identification of warning signs for pregnant women and the risk of preeclampsia and other things that contribute to maternal mortality across the country and the world, which is a huge issue. It could be its own documentary, but it's really interesting to see his journey, because you can't just have the idea, you have to develop it, you have to make sure that you work with clinicians to make sure it works right for the people who you want to be using it and you have to go through clinical trials right To really be taken seriously in healthcare, and that's a whole world not a lot of people understand and I think it's important to show that and show how much work goes into it. And he's up till 3 am every night working hard trying to create a network that's going to build his company, that's going to make it more real, tangible and work within the healthcare system and be outside of that.
Mike Eisenberg:Being able to show people who watch the film examples of currently operational technological advancements in patient safety is critical for us to tell the story. We go as small as and small might not be the right word here but we go as minimal as VR to replace anesthesia where it's not necessary in a surgical procedure, all the way up to command centers that kind of help operate the entire hospital from behind the scenes to make sure it's operating at its most effective way. And we talked earlier about the way the film shows the education and simulation world. But there's obviously so many different places you can go and I think with the conversation that's so hot topic right now about AI in healthcare or AI in general, it's really important to show people that it's not about finding ways to replace doctors, it's not about replacing the human touch in medicine.
Mike Eisenberg:That you can't do, that You'll fail. And what's really important is realizing that humans make mistakes, figuring out where those mistakes occur and building systems that can prevent those mistakes from causing harm. That's what good patient safety looks like, and the beauty of AI and machine learning and other tech is that it can take some of the burden off of the human where humans are not really the right ones to be doing it. When you're talking about what's happening in healthcare, I think that's the best space to find change and modernization, and at least that's what I saw in making the film and seems to be something that a lot of people agree with, and I'm glad that we can hopefully facilitate that conversation moving forward.
Deb Tauber:Mike, when you say healthcare is going to AI and things are moving, how long do you think it's going to take before clinicians are really utilizing this? Because you talk to a lot of people who are in the space and are more knowledgeable about this.
Mike Eisenberg:I think it depends on some of those factors that you can't control as a patient, and that's the sad truth of American health care.
Mike Eisenberg:It's not all one thing right, and if you live in a state where you have to drive two hours to go to your only option of a hospital, it's really up to that hospital to use the tools at their disposal to advance and get ready for the future of healthcare. And when you look at the bigger cities where patient safety innovation companies live Boston or New York or DC, wherever they still have a lot of work to do themselves, and what really matters is patients take it upon themselves to not just be the recipient of care but be an active part in telling the hospital what they expect. And the same thing we talked about earlier, with the clinicians of the future living their whole lives with technology and expecting their systems to use that technology. Patients are the same way and there are going to be people in health care who have done it a certain way for a long time and it's worked for them and that's all well and good, but it's catching up and at some point they won't be doing medicine anymore. And if we're, if we're trying to just keep the status quo the same, then the patient safety will stay the same and the problems that haven't been solved in the 25 years since two errors human the report came out, are going to be another 25 years.
Mike Eisenberg:And if you look at the other industries that really focus on safety, they do so well. In the space that we're talking about in this film is they find a way to use technology to make it so that people don't get hurt when errors occur. It's really that simple and I think that's where we can all work together to see where it's working and make sure that everybody is on the same page.
Deb Tauber:Great, great. Any fun facts about the movie. Anything that was really fun.
Mike Eisenberg:I guess.
Mike Eisenberg:I mean, I think that it's also interesting to me.
Mike Eisenberg:We try to put all the best stuff in the final film right and I take pride in that as an editor, and with spending only a year, there's not as much on the cutting room floor as maybe there was in the last film.
Mike Eisenberg:But I think I think what's cool is ratam.
Mike Eisenberg:Honestly, I'm infatuated with his personality and how he thinks and how he operates.
Mike Eisenberg:I think he is the kind of person that makes me feel like I'm now a generation later I'm not a kid anymore, because he and a lot of his colleagues they move so fast, they think so quick and they know what they want and they're going and getting it and I think it's really cool to see that on screen.
Mike Eisenberg:But also to see that in the people who we've talked to, I mean developing the movie that didn't make the film and then in panel discussions to come where we're bringing innovators in who are similar in their experience to him and they think the same way, like ready to change the world, and so, no, it's not as much of a cool trivia or IMDB fun fact Maybe some will come to me in time but I really just think it's cool to see what a 21-year-old MD candidate who decided to forego being a doctor and be an AI machine learning company founder looks like, because we don't see that story usually and I'm excited for people to see that and hopefully the film can somehow generate even just one more version of him to solve some other problem. I think that would be cool.
Deb Tauber:Thanks. Anything else you'd like to leave our listeners with? I?
Mike Eisenberg:I think that would be cool. Thanks, Anything else you'd like to leave our listeners with? No? Just I hope that you have a chance to watch the film, but even if you don't, just go out there and look for the information about the hospitals that you use, and don't forget that you can play a role in the way that they present themselves and the safety that they operate within. It's not just a well. They all went to medical school so they know everything, but they do want to do their best and they can't do it alone, so I always would like to share that with people. It's just like be an active part of your healthcare experience and find out what you can do to influence them, to be using the tools to make it better.
Deb Tauber:Thanks. Now if our listeners wanted to have their own personal screening, even after the big release of it. Do you guys still do that afterward?
Mike Eisenberg:Yeah, oh yeah, we will continue to do so. We have screenings across the country in September and October, even if you, in 2025, already set up. So if you, you know, if you feel like it's the kind of thing that you want to help set up, go to our website that's www. thepitchdocumentary. com, and you'll see a form you can just fill out, just say you're interested. It'll send me an email and we can go from there. I'll work with you one-on-one to help make it happen. I want this film in 50 states. Our last film was 38 states and then COVID happened and I'll never forget it. I want 50 states this time. So that's my mission to make sure every state in this country has a chance to see this film at least once, and go from there.
Deb Tauber:Thank you. Thank you Jared anything else.
Jerrod Jeffries:No, this is wonderful One. I'm definitely going to watch it. I was at the screening again, but I think that this is going to be. It's going to be a beautiful one, mike, so looking forward to it, and I love the mission you're pushing and almost the legacy of the baton you're taking from your father too. I think that's important, that you need to push, and I look forward to supporting you and the dissemination of the content and how you create that message. So, thank you.
Mike Eisenberg:Thanks.
Jerrod Jeffries:Thank you.
Mike Eisenberg:Thank you, happy to be here and I hope your listeners enjoyed it.
Deb Tauber:Thank you, mike, thank you Happy simulating.
Disclaimer/Innovative Sim Solutions Ad/ Intro:Thanks to Innovative Sim Solutions for sponsoring this week's podcast. Innovative Sim Solutions will make your plans for your next Sim Center a reality. Contact Deb Tauber and her team today. Thanks for joining us here at the Sim Cafe. We hope you enjoyed. Visit us at www. innovativesimsolutions. com and be sure to hit that like and subscribe button so you never miss an episode. Innovative Sim Solutions is your one-stop shop for your simulation needs. A turnkey solution.
