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The Sim Cafe~
The Sim Cafe~
Revolutionizing Healthcare Education: Elevate Healthcare's Journey with Emerging Technologies
What if the future of healthcare education could be shaped by a blend of cutting-edge technology and a steadfast commitment to user needs? Join us as we sit down with the innovative minds behind Elevate Healthcare—Melissa Lowther, Brian Truesdale, and Tim Whitaker. Together, we chart the thrilling transformation of their company from CAE Healthcare to a standalone force under Madison Industries. Discover how their mission to improve patient safety and productivity aligns with Madison's vision of a safer, healthier world, and how they're using this as a springboard to revolutionize the healthcare education landscape.
Explore the fascinating evolution of healthcare simulation over the past decade with Melissa and Tim as your guides. Our conversation takes you through pivotal technological advancements, like the game-changing Lucina product, and reveals how Elevate Healthcare remains steadfastly focused on the needs of simulationists. We dive into the importance of a user-centric approach that not only meets but anticipates the industry's demands for efficient and effective education solutions. This dedication positions Elevate Healthcare as a leader in the simulation field, committed to enhancing safety and competency for educators and learners alike.
As we embrace the future, we highlight the breathtaking potential of emerging technologies like AI and spatial computing within healthcare simulation. Learn how these innovations are not just novelties but transformative tools that can enhance educational experiences by improving student engagement and reducing cognitive load on educators. Elevate Healthcare's strategic application of AI, alongside innovations in flexible simulator products, promises to streamline operations and elevate educational tools every single day. Join us for a rich discussion that captures the thrilling possibilities of tomorrow's healthcare simulation and the relentless spirit of improvement that drives Elevate Healthcare forward.
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Your turnkey solution provider for medical simulation programs, sim centers & faculty design.
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. Thanks to SimVS for sponsoring this week's episode. The new SimVS iV Infusion Pump Simulator is the first to market in this critical learning area, with great realism and advanced features like simulation, meta orders, gamified med arrows and more. Simvs IV significantly reduces the burden for training proper IV administration when compared to refurbished pumps. Simvs IV helps students develop the confidence needed in a safe environment before facing the challenges of modern health care. To learn more, visit www. simvscom. 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 experts from across the globe to reimagine clinical education and the use of simulation. rr 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 are so fortunate to have the folks from Elevate Healthcare. Welcome Jared, welcome Melissa, welcome Brian, welcome Tim. So thank you so much for joining us, and with that, why don't Melissa?
Melissa Lowther:why don't you introduce yourself to our guests? Sure, my name is Melissa Loher. I am a solution sales consultant for Learning Space at Elevate Healthcare, and I am one of the fellows for the Society for Simulation in Healthcare.
Deb Tauber:Congratulations. Thank you, Brian. You want to go ahead?
Brian Truesdale:Sure, so I'm Brian Truesdale. I'm CEO and President of Elevate Healthcare, just joined the company earlier this year, in May, and excited to be here with all of you to talk about the exciting things happening at Elevate.
Deb Tauber:Thank you. Thank you, Tim, you want to go ahead?
Tim Whitaker:Sure Thanks. I'm Tim Whitaker. I'm the product manager for patient simulation for Elevate Healthcare. Been in the space for quite a while right now with the Society for Simulation and Healthcare, vice chair for the credentialing for the certifications and a few other councils and such Thanks.
Deb Tauber:Thank you. Now, those in the audience that may not be familiar with Elevate, who is Elevate Healthcare?
Brian Truesdale:Elevate is the former CAE Healthcare, the former healthcare simulation business within CAE, which is a larger publicly traded Canadian company that did simulation in aerospace and defense, and they built a small platform compared to their larger business in the healthcare space. So we are essentially a new thing unto ourselves. We were purchased earlier this year by Madison Industries from CAE. That was back in February of 2024. And so we've set up a kind of standalone company. We're not, although we're owned by Madison, we are operating more like an independent business, and so we're excited to have that opportunity to kind of create something a bit new from something that's been around for a while.
Jerrod Jefrries:Thanks again for being here. I know maybe I'm just speaking for myself, but extremely excited to talk to you all. I think that historically there's been you know it was first Medi, then it moved into CAE and now we're seeing what a new chapter turning with what Elevate Healthcare is going to go. But I think even before then is who is Madison? And two is like how do you differ from the previous ownership with CAE or even Medi, or what's the new outlook on that?
Brian Truesdale:Yeah, so Madison Industries is a large corporation, privately held, based in Chicago, and it started out as a private equity firm just much like any other private equity firm. But about 10 years ago, I believe, we made a strategic shift away from traditional buying and maybe spinning off or selling off assets as they improved them. Larry Geese, our president, ceo of Madison, made a decision. He was going to look at the world a little bit differently through a mission purpose lens and look at businesses that really fit a particular mission which we're all compelled by and I think it really resonates with Elevate and the industry as a whole, and that mission is to make the world safer, healthier and more productive and we talk about that in every business within Madison. It's that our mission as a company broadly of I believe we have over 60 different companies within Madison and you know each of those companies in their own way makes the world safer, healthier and more productive.
Brian Truesdale:I think Elevate, and being part of this industry, we actually get the privilege of checking all three of those boxes. You know we see obviously trying to make patient safety improvements, make the world healthier and obviously helping make both SimCenter operators, educators, students more productive and obviously people even out in practice. So Madison in and of itself is a big, big business with you know, we've got five big platforms and the platform where Elevate is housed is the medical platform and we have other sister companies that serve both medical devices, mostly in the laboratory environment, but also disposable medical supplies. So we're in a little bit of a new platform within that space. But Madison is really, really excited by what opportunities exist in simulation and so we're different, I think, in the respect that we have a focus really truly about healthcare in our business. We're not part of again a larger simulation business that's looking at aerospace and government contracts and things like that. We're really trying to serve this particular space in healthcare education and so our mission is really singularly that and that's what we're focused on.
Jerrod Jefrries:So thank you for that B . Just to distill it down to a couple sentences, you guys. So Madison Industries traditionally looks at healthcare companies. They saw a good opportunity with what was formerly CAE Healthcare and they believe that they can help create the healthcare simulation space safer, healthier and more productive. That they can help create the healthcare simulation space safer, healthier and more productive yes, exactly.
Brian Truesdale:Yeah, I think what we see in the space is an opportunity to bring some of the operating frameworks that Madison uses. So, on top of that, we want to have that mission of making the world safer, healthier, more productive. We also look at the world through a lens of a fanatical focus on the customer, and that's one of our big tenets is to make sure that we're always focused on customer need and that job the customer needs to achieve and working our innovation portfolio backward from that, as well as creating an environment where people love to work and building that around again. That mission and as you said, I think, earlier, as we were just getting introduced, this industry, probably more than any other than I've been in, is really passionate about what we do, right, I mean, and the folks, even at Elevate that I've had the privilege to start to get to know and work with, I mean the passion just kind of in your face, which is great it is.
Brian Truesdale:There's a ton of just love for what this business does and what people do in their roles to help make healthcare education better, and so I think it's an awesome mission and it fits, like I said, the Madison overarching mission really well, and so I think Madison also looked at it through that lens. Does it fit our mission? And that's, you know, one of the other filters that's critical. There are tons of healthcare businesses out there and other operations that Madison could go invest in, but if they don't check those boxes, it's not something that they're going to pull in as part of the Madison family or Madison ecosystem, if you like to call it.
Deb Tauber:Thank you. Now I know all of our listeners are pretty curious about this. You renamed the company Elevate Healthcare after the purchase. What about the company is going to stay the same and what is going to change?
Melissa Lowther:Sure, I think what's going to stay the same.
Brian Truesdale:You know, obviously we have a breadth of portfolio that you know tries to serve many aspects of simulation, whether it's in the AV debriefing or it's in the physical patient simulators or even digital simulation tools. Our goal is to be a full service solution provider for simulation and to do it really well, and I think this business has done that for a long time in terms of trying to continuously build up what we can bring to our customers. I think beyond that, I think what stays the same is all of that. But what changes a bit is, I think, again coming back to this focus that we have and we use a principle called 80-20, which is an operating principle we employ one.
Brian Truesdale:I've had used in my entire career, and what's amazing about it is, when you create this hyper-focus on what the customer needs, you get really great innovation out of it and you get really precise the products that basically solve very specific problems and hopefully the most challenging problems that your customers encounter every day. And so I think what's different is that that focus on the customer, that fanatical focus on the customer I mentioned earlier, is really a driver for us in almost everything we do, and we always look customer backwards. I don't know that I would say that CEE didn't do that, but I think we just do it a whole lot more, and so we're just kind of hyper sensitive to trying to understand what customers need and then trying to figure out how do we solve those problems in a very unique way.
Jerrod Jefrries:Can I dig a little more into that too? When you were mentioning the focus on the customer and the 80-20, do you have any foreshadowing of what that 80% would be, of what users or Elevate customers or even potential new customers could be looking at for the future?
Brian Truesdale:Yeah, I think the customers I've spoken with over know four or five months I've been here.
Brian Truesdale:I think I've heard a consistent thread throughout those conversations, which is, you know, the struggle to have the capacity needed to bring more nurses and doctors, you know, to the market, so to speak.
Brian Truesdale:You know, we all know there's not enough practitioners out there to help solve the problems that we have in the healthcare space, and we also don't have enough educators, and then, on top of that, we're struggling with just enough STEM center technicians and operators as well.
Brian Truesdale:So the industry has this challenge of kind of workforce availability and I think that's the threat I've heard consistently from our customers. So, as we think about those problems, I see that as one of the 80, the few problems that have the most impact on the industry that we can help solve, and so many of our product innovations that you'll be seeing coming forward are really aimed at how do we improve capacity for our customers so that you can actually serve more students or have more time to spend with students doing the things you love to do, rather than doing maybe a lot of back office activities? So I think that's something in my mind, just from what I've heard from customers directly. You know they're always saying you know, I just don't have enough educators, or I can't get enough students through my program, or we want to add students but we just don't have the capacity. And I think our job is to help open up that capacity and help them use their time in the way they'd love to use their time, which is the spending time with the students teaching.
Jerrod Jefrries:And I've heard it a lot too, so I'm glad we're hearing similar stories.
Brian Truesdale:Yeah, it's a great problem to solve, for I think even just my own career experience been through other industries that have had this same challenge, and so I think that's one of the things I'm excited about, because I know there are ways that this can be solved, and I think we have a lot of great foundational products already and we just need to continue to advance them and build on our portfolio with some new innovation.
Deb Tauber:Brian, you've really got an interesting background and you're coming into this field with some very fresh eyes. So I'm curious about how you felt when you started to see the simulators and what you were thinking when you got introduced to this technology and this science.
Brian Truesdale:Yeah, first you're kind of looking at like wow, I didn't even know any of this existed. My first few times, just seeing even the products we have here, I was like I just didn't imagine it was that sophisticated. So and then as you start to go out again, seeing customers at their locations and then their centers, it's remarkable the amount of technology that's engaged in this whole process and I think also the thoughtfulness of trying to create that fidelity or that experience that's immersive. And I was with a customer actually last week and they talked about they were using one of our birthing simulators and they said every group of students, cohort of nursing students that comes through, there's usually a couple of students that cry when the baby's born out of the simulator and you're like wow, I mean that must be a really immersive experience if it evokes that kind of emotion out of a student. So they also had a couple that faint every so often.
Brian Truesdale:So it's kind of like you know, but if people really get engaged in it in that way, I mean it's remarkable that this technology can actually basically connect at that level of emotion. I think it is remarkable. So again, it's something as we talk about our mission to make the world safer, healthier, more productive. You know, as I've talked to other people, that I know that don't know anything about the industry, no matter what. When you start sharing the stories of what this technology and what these solutions do, people are always intrigued that you know there's such a thing that exists, that helps teach our doctors and nurses and clinicians how to how to do their jobs really well when it matters certainly yeah and I guess, tim, you and Melissa have both seen a lot of changes throughout the years as well with your time being in, also with SSH, and you know the changes that CAE and now Elevate has been coming to.
Jerrod Jefrries:Would you want to touch on any of those, like Melissa?
Melissa Lowther:yeah, there have been a lot of changes. So I've been in the industry for almost 12 years. Tim's got a lot more years on me as far as that. So, yeah, the changes have been pretty wild.
Melissa Lowther:So, going from, you know, being in some centers and some of the early technologies that I was using, you know, as things like our Lucina product but just seeing what she can do now versus what she did in the early days and things like that but really the innovations that's the things that drive me and my passion for this industry is seeing how much we can do, and sometimes it's those really, really simple things, but right now, meeting those challenges is such an important thing. I think we all know that the last few years have certainly opened a lot of people's eyes as to how understaffed we are across so many disciplines. And so, being able to pull all of those in and really make sure that they're getting the training that they need, that it's high quality training, that and really make sure that they're getting the training that they need, that it's high quality training, that we're making sure that we're doing the absolute best for them as possible and then making it easier coming from the operations side of the house. Making it easier for people to operate the products, to do these things and not spend so much time in locked up in an office and spend more time, you know, doing Sims, whether it's you know hands-on things, digital things and getting a whole lot more of that time with, with with our learners, is just so important.
Melissa Lowther:So, yeah, it's it's been kind of a wild more than decade to see how things have changed in our best practices and you know talking about codes of ethics and things like that. It's really great to see, like looking back on that, because it does give this idea of how much further we could go in the future. So I think it just seeing that remains like this exciting piece knowing how much we can do in the future and I think that's where we're at now is taking this company as Elevate Healthcare and realizing that we can really be pushing those boundaries really hard and making sure we're just doing the best for everybody.
Jerrod Jefrries:Certainly. Thank you, Melissa and Tim. What are some of the changes that you've seen throughout and then excited for with Elevate?
Tim Whitaker:Oh, I've seen a lot. I've been around for quite a long time. I'm going to date myself, you know, as one of the first B model users of an HPS back when it was all in one car with the compressors and things like that. And to echo Melissa, there's been a lot of technology changes. I've seen formalized education occur for simulationists in the world right and that's been important. I mean, I remember you know, we made simulators do a lot of different things because people, they didn't have that experience and now we're seeing all these experienced people. So one of the big things I've seen shift is the amount of technology and the explosion of that technology and what we can do with that. And then the shift do we need the technology? I mean. So I think one of the to demonstrate what Elevate's doing and one of the you know and nothing. You know.
Tim Whitaker:This wasn't bad for CAE, but we were a small portion of a very large company. Now we focus on our future and everyone else's future out there and being super close to the customer right and doing what they need. There's a lot of things floating around and doesn't really have an educational outcome. So a lot of shiny things and so at the end of the day, we want to get things done. One glaring thing that I remember and it was when Hall Day was still publishing the Sim Magazine there was an op-ed in it that said engineering is completely out of touch with the end user. That stuck in my head and one of the things I think that we can shift to and what elevates bringing to us is that fanatical focus on the customer.
Tim Whitaker:We are literally doing tons of VOC. We know from studies people aren't doing using this and doing this. Doing this, we can zero in on where those gaps are at and serve the industry to meet these throughput needs, these efficiency needs. I head out of the computer from running a simulator where I can actually look up and see what's going on in the sim lab and what my learners are doing, or, you know, auto, auto scoring, things like that. That makes that job easier. Let's be honest there's a lot of places out there that the faculty, the educator and the ops specialist are all one person yeah we need to be able to help them.
Tim Whitaker:If we can't create efficiencies, we can't solve for X because we're not going to, unfortunately, build educators and faculty and things. We can't do that. So we have to solve for those Xs and to include cost right. So I think that's one of the great things that the fanatical focus and looking at where those gaps are. That elevates broad. That was a big change and yes, I've been through a lot of the different changes through the time, from starting with METI and then working my way to this point. So I think if we focus on what is meeting the outcomes to educate clinicians, establish competency and put a safe practitioner on the road, that's where the key is for all the simulation industry.
Jerrod Jefrries:Wonderful, yeah, and it seems, it seems like to me. It's like with the shift and maybe I'm, you know, it's too macro, but the shift from CAE to Elevate might be. With CAE, you were a little fish in a big pond. Maybe there wasn't resource allocation, or maybe it was just overlooked within the such niche market of CAE's overall pie, where now you're a big fish in a little pond where it's Madison and Elevate saying OK, this is simulation, this is how we're going to make it safer, healthier, more productive for simulationists all around the world.
Tim Whitaker:Yeah, I think any company, they suffer it's not necessarily suffer. And CAE wasn't like treating us, you know, as a side thing. Obviously, from a business standpoint, aviation simulation was the a hundred percent or the 98% for them Right, and we were the other percentage and this allows us to put 100% at the mission and do it that way, and so it was. It wasn't a bad thing under CAE I don't want to say that, but it's like any other business. We can put our focus and make it our own right at this point. Great.
Deb Tauber:Thanks. You know you talked about the 80-20 rule and what do you believe are the biggest challenges in healthcare simulation and healthcare industry and how can you apply? Are the biggest challenges in healthcare simulation and healthcare industry and how can you apply that to? You know, make some changes.
Brian Truesdale:Yeah, so we talked earlier about just there's this whole workforce availability problem. I think one of the things that we've talked about internally is that getting close to the customer means you start to actually learn what the 80-20 is, and so maybe for your audience, just to explain that rule a little bit, what we believe is that there are in 80-20, that there's a few inputs that generate the most output or have the most impact, and in the world of business, we sometimes talk about it as 20% of my customers generate 80% of my revenues or 80% of my profits. My products are the same thing, and so it's making sure that we're focusing on the few things that really have the most not only impact on our business, but impact on the industry, and so I'm a strong advocate of using 80-20 almost everywhere. I do it probably to a fault, where I go home, and I talk about it to my wife too often about. You know, this is where we should spend our time, because it's the 80 is the most important, but when we talk about it in our business, we also want to talk about what is the big problem that needs to be solved, and then how do we get close to it and really understand it and so that we can actually tailor or craft the right product or the right solution to that need. And, as Tim said, we're doing a ton of EOC, we do focus groups, we do a lot of market research to really understand that well, before we start going down the track of just trying to develop a product for the sake of developing a product.
Brian Truesdale:I think one of the things that you see in any industry and I know it's here, I know it's in all the industries I've ever been in any company can be guilty of saying we just need to get another product out there.
Brian Truesdale:We just need to get another product out there, we just need to get another bell or whistle on our product. And I think what I'm trying to help our teams here do is realize that not every bell and whistle is all that valuable and all that important to our customers. It's far more important to understand what is really important and then to make sure we get those boxes checked, rather than saying, oh look, I have a thousand features in my simulator and obviously Tim, you said it well you know the SimCenter operator, the educator, the technician they might all be the same person. The more complex we make the product the harder, we're actually making their job, and so by focusing on those few things that really matter to them and getting that job done and hopefully maybe even automating some of the stuff that isn't so important but needs to be done, is a way that we apply 80-20 kind of in our world and how we see the way we can help the industry.
Brian Truesdale:using 80-20 in many respects Is to say there are jobs that are really important for that educator or some operator or technician. And then there's things that are not so important in their world, what's their 80 and what's their 20. And so if we can help take over that 20 and off their plate by putting it into, let's say, a software package like learning space, and automate some of those things they have more time to go spend with, with you know, the things that really matter and really have an impact on great clinicians and experiences for those students.
Jerrod Jefrries:Yeah, no, well said, and I love that. Every industry is special I put that in air quotes since we're a podcast here but there is similar principles that you can apply to every industry and I think it's well said, brian of people just keep putting out a new feature, functionality, which who knows how much cost that consumes, but that aside, the customer doesn't see that. Or the simulationist, but of course that cost has to go somewhere and you can only take so many hits before something really needs to come. So I love that simplicity and the focus on the safer, healthier, more productive outcomes, and you might have mentioned some of it, but when it came to I mean, we even go with learning space, for example, since you mentioned it, Brian, but what is Elevate doing to address these specific challenges of focusing on the 80 versus 20? I heard voice of customer, I heard some market research, but is there any more specifics you can give us?
Brian Truesdale:Yeah, sure. So we actually just hosted a webinar the other day for some of our big users of Learning Space to try and update them on kind of the roadmap ahead for Learning Space and where we're going. I think, again, some of the areas where we see opportunity is to hopefully take away some of that, call it, back office work that needs to be done and automating it or making it much simpler to accomplish it. And so, as an example, you know, we're bringing AI into that platform so that it can do a lot of the kind of thought process behind, whether it's scheduling or even some evaluations, and kind of call it augmenting what the educator does, so that they don't have to kind of do everything. But we're really kind of bringing the most important work right out to the front and moving a lot of the other work to the back, where all that can get done, whether it's through AI or just much more capable software platforms. That's one area.
Brian Truesdale:I think another area is to again make our product more flexible and usable, and so we've got a lot of new physical simulator products coming out here in the next year. We'll be showing some at IMSH. We showed some last year in terms of modular mannequins and things like that. So we have the opportunity to make it easy for customers to configure a product in a way that's best for their particular lesson or whatever they're trying to accomplish with their students, accomplish with their students.
Brian Truesdale:Increasing the ability to change, diversity of those mannequins and the kind of things that they can give as an experience we think is an opportunity to help make that again, that experience far more tangible and, you know, bringing that fidelity to life in such that somebody would cry when something happens in one of these simulators. You know, sadly I'm trying to get more people to cry, I guess. But I think when you can get that kind of visceral emotion from someone in that experience, I think you started to kind of cross that barrier where they're really really deeply learning about what it's going to be like when they have to do it in real life. It's obviously not exactly the same, but if you can have that emotional reaction, I think you're starting to get close to that edge of making it real enough.
Deb Tauber:Yeah, brian, and that's part of what keeps the simulationists passionate about this field. I've been in many simulations where learners have evoked the emotions of full-blown tears. It just really can strike the chord.
Brian Truesdale:It just really can strike the chord. Yeah, I can't say I've ever had other products that you know had that kind of emotional impact on a student or a customer or user of a product. But I would say it's amazing and it's obviously honestly an honor to be able to be part of that and to be in that mission, in that moment of a student's career where they're going to remember that.
Brian Truesdale:I can just give you a brief story about this that I was in the emergency room a couple of months ago with my mother and I was talking with the nurse that was there at the time and she asked what I did and I told her I was with Elevate and I explained what we did and she said, oh, you mean Apollo and Juno and you know, Christina Sheila knew them.
Brian Truesdale:And she said they were like my family during nursing school and she says you don't know how well I know all of them and I was like you know them better than I do. She literally listed every single one of the products that we made and I was, I was amazed at again, how connected she felt to our products. And it's just again. It's an amazing honor to have that kind of impact on a person and their career and then you know how inspired they become to go do the work they do, which is amazing work every day, so again it's an amazing opportunity to create those experiences for people.
Jerrod Jefrries:Yeah, and to that point, Brian, I mean, there's students that are spent so much time with these because because it's not, you know, back to some of what Tim was saying too is it's not always that they're in a high fidelity simulator or simulation, but they're always talking or doing something with the simulator itself. Again, back to some of the cost discussion we've had too is like you don't always want to have a technician or operator, like prepare everything, but you still need to see some sort of fringe or or outside skill sets. Uh, so they really get close to them. They really get close to them I was floored.
Brian Truesdale:I was floored when she could kind of again list them all off and she gave me four or five stories of different simulations that are literally were vivid to her and she can remember exactly what happened and how she reacted. So to me that's the kind of reward that we get for what we do, when you can see that reflected back to you in just their everyday work.
Deb Tauber:Now, how do you feel that emerging technologies like AI and spatial computing are going to impact simulation over the next several years? What are you guys' thoughts on that?
Brian Truesdale:Yeah, I mean I can start. Certainly Tim and Melissa will have more probably experiential ways to share what they think. But I think you know what I see again coming from other industries and just in general, seeing what's emerging in both the AI and then spatial computing, there's so much opportunity to leverage that technology. Now, again, leveraging for the sake of leveraging it or throwing into the product is to me not the way forward. So I think we have to pick our spots and leverage them to do really valuable work, rather than just saying, oh, I've got an AI thing, because I think if you see most products out there, especially software products, everybody's attached an AI to it. Where we see that opportunity, you know again, is to free up educators to do what they love to do to help make the students' experience more impactful.
Brian Truesdale:And then I think you've got other technologies that now they become more commercially viable, like, let's call it, autonomous vehicles. You think that I've come from the automotive world. You know autonomous vehicles can process images at a very, very high rate of speed. You know they're detecting whether or not a pet pedestrian's in the street or an animal's in the road or whatever, and guiding that vehicle. So you can imagine those technologies that they become more ubiquitous in other industries, become much more available and less expensive to integrate, even things like our, our simulation products. So, whether it's virtual reality or augmented reality or ai or whatever, I think, as those technologies get mass consumed and adopted by a lot of other date, you know daily things that we use in our lives. They become much more portable and integratable, so to speak, into the products that we deliver, which I lives.
Brian Truesdale:They become much more portable and and integratable, so to speak, into the products that we deliver, which I think, it's going to be amazing obviously, when you can mix and we have a few products that do this today that mix both the tangible, you know, physical simulator with augmented reality.
Brian Truesdale:You've now, you know, changed that whole experience to be kind of multi-dimensional, where now I'm not just looking at, you know, the outside of the mannequin, where I can now look inside the mannequin using an AR headset.
Brian Truesdale:And that helps again that learning experience where I can visualize and I think we all, I think, can appreciate that being able to visualize what you're doing, and especially when you can't really see what's happening when you're doing, let's say, a procedure on a patient, but you could visualize what it's kind of looking like on the inside as you're doing it, whether that's a sonogram or a simple task like putting an IV in an arm, you get at least a better understanding of how you are impacting your patients and how you're solving their problems.
Brian Truesdale:So I think it was an immense opportunity going forward. I think probably the biggest challenge is to figure out what's the right use of it and again, that I would say is kind of independent of industry. We can always get sucked into. We're going to, you know, click the latest thing onto our product and that's going to just solve everybody's problems. I think again listening to the customer, that fanatical focus on the customer figuring out how do I apply AI or how do I bring virtual reality into this space in a very meaningful way, rather than just kind of throwing a bunch of stuff at customers.
Brian Truesdale:And so that's our approach is that the technology has to be intentionally placed rather than just kind of peanut butter spread over everything.
Deb Tauber:Exactly Deliberate about what is being done in the field. Yeah, I see you shaking your head there. What do you want to?
Melissa Lowther:Yeah, I have to echo that and I think Brian is exactly spot on. Ai is very cool. There's lots of stuff we can do with it. I know there's a lot of AI scare at the same time, so luckily we're very, very intentional about it.
Melissa Lowther:But one of the things that Brian is saying is we're not just like, hey, this is new technology, let's use it.
Melissa Lowther:It's hey, how can we use it to get the best outcomes we can get from our learners, whoever they are, but also how can we take it and use it to remove cognitive load off of our operations folks and use it to remove cognitive load off of our operations folks, our faculty, so that they can be much deeper in you know the work that they need to be in with the learners instead of some of the other things.
Melissa Lowther:So really using it in that way because there's so much cognitive load on the folks on the you know operations team, whether it's you know the specialist, on the operations team, whether it's the specialist or the faculty so in any way that we can use it in a dual purpose to benefit the learners and also benefit the SIMS staff is huge and I think that's one of the things is to make sure that, as Brian said, it's very intentional to use it that way, regardless of what technology it is. I mean, ai is certainly one of them, but really looking at all technologies that way is a huge benefit to make sure that we're using it with a specific purpose in mind and using it to its best advantage.
Deb Tauber:Well, thank you so much, and do you guys have any closing thoughts that you want to share with our listeners?
Brian Truesdale:Sure, I think, again, we're excited as Elevate to be part of the mission of this industry and again having those emotional connections with our customers, and we have a ton of opportunity to improve what we do every day. And I think we actually kind of have an internal mantra now that we've adopted I think we call it elevate every day which is you know, some people say you know you should get just 1% better every day, and that's our goal is to just continue to push that envelope consistently, and you know it doesn't need to be massive changes but it does need to be a consistent drumbeat of improving outcomes for our customers and their patients. And so, again, we have a ton of opportunities to go establish our brand and our name. But we've been here for a while and we have a ton of great people like Melissa and Tim and the entire team that's behind us doing all these great things every day. But our goal is to really help move the industry forward just that little bit every day and elevate the industry.
Brian Truesdale:And that's why we picked the name. The name is it's all about trying to build, going forward and go up as we, as we do it, but do it in a very kind of smart way where we're. We're always trying to deliver on that desire to improve a patient outcome. So thank you again for inviting us. It's great to talk. Thank you.
Tim Whitaker:Oh, I just appreciate being on and kind of celebrating the exciting future for us here at Elevate and for all of you that will be exposed to all of what we're trying to do in the industry. I think it's a new world, a new approach that's coming in the future for us and I'm excited to be part of it. So thanks for having us.
Jerrod Jefrries:Thank you, thank you for the time.
Deb Tauber:Melissa, anything you want to conclude with?
Melissa Lowther:Yeah, just to echo the guys, it's a really exciting time. There's so many things going on, know, going on in the industry, in the company, you know. There's just I feel like there's a we're sort of at this like critical mass of like momentum with healthcare simulation and there's just so many facets of wonderful things happening. So it's really wonderful to be able to come and chat with you all today and share about that and hopefully, you know, in the future we'll have some more Definitely. You know for the listeners that you know, but keep an ear out for what's happening with Elevate Healthcare. There's going to be some really exciting things at IMSH and in the future. So it's going to be a lot of really fun stuff is going to be a lot of really fun stuff.
Deb Tauber:Thank you, thank you Now. If our listeners do want to get a hold of you now, because it's a new, it's a whole new. You know, where do you get a hold of the old CAE? Where do you get a hold of Elevate? How do you get a hold of your rep? What? How can you help them? How can we help them?
Brian Truesdale:Sure. So you know, certainly our new website, Elevate. net. n healthcare. net, is one way. Obviously, there's again the reps that we've had that have been out in the industry are still out there, and we also have some distributors as well. So we definitely want you to reach out, but the website is probably the easiest way to connect through, and then we obviously have LinkedIn pages and all those great social media points of contact. So please do reach out, as Melissa suggested. We'd love to hear more.
Brian Truesdale:Again. That fanatical focus on the customer is always out in front of us to try and make sure that we reach out and hear where people are seeing challenges and opportunities for our products to be improved or just even things across just simulation that need more support and need more advancement. So, yeah, we love to hear from our customers and get more feedback. Like I said, we love to hear from our customers and get more feedback. Like I said, we did a quick call with a lot of our Learning Space users and got a ton of great ideas and other opportunities where we can help them do their jobs more effectively.
Deb Tauber:Thank you Well with that happy simulating.
Diclaimer/ SimVS/ Intro:Thanks to SimVS again for sponsoring this week's episode. Happy simulating. Thanks for joining us here at The Sim Cafe. We hope you enjoyed. Visit us at www. i. nnovativesimsolutions. 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.
