Lead Author: Katharine Cardiff
Submitted by: Amy Lorion, NBOME

According to Cardiff et al., “Psychiatric genetic counseling (pGC) has been demonstrated to have meaningful positive outcomes for people with psychiatric conditions and their families. However, it is not widely accessed, and clinical genetics services tend to receive few referrals for these indications.” To gain insight into how to breach this gap, the authors undertook a study “to understand the perceptions of and reactions to a simulated pGC session among psychiatrists.” The study involved recording a 65-minute simulated pGC session with an SP.

By: Erin Walsh, Standardized Patient Educator, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, North Chicago, IL

Receiving a scholarship to attend the 2024 ASPE conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada, was a profound honor. The theme of this year's conference, “Inspiring growth, motivating change, and creating opportunities,” resonates with me during this time of intense change in politics, education, and training. This last year was challenging professionally when my mentor, Barbara Eulenberg, retired. ASPE helped me shift my focus from looking at these major changes in the negative to reframing them as opportunities for growth and change.

By Amy Rush and Samantha Syms

The ASPE Communications and Connections Committee took its name seriously when planning for the 2024 ASPE conference in Vancouver, B.C. To facilitate connections, create some fun activities and make memories, it was decided that a conference-wide scavenger hunt was in order. Committee members Renee Wadsworth, Amanda Fernandez-Acosta, Amy Rush and Samantha Syms designed the hunt and the ASPE board backed the endeavor. The scavenger hunt, open to all conference attendees, but completely voluntary, was facilitated using the Whova conference app, with which the committee communicated with attendees via the community message board.

By: Mary Launder

The depth of extraordinary work and contributions given to the ASPE Community is highlighted through the annual awards presented to those outstanding members who serve the ASPE community. Eligible ASPE members are nominated by colleagues and coworkers and the nomination committees hold a standard fair and inclusive process. This 2024 awards ceremony was held in person in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on June 26^th, 2024.

By: Janice Radway, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

The Opening Plenary of the 2024 ASPE Conference in Vancouver started with a splash. Or should I say song? There was no PowerPoint. There was no one standing on the big stage with screens behind them. Instead, we were treated to Petula Clark’s “Downtown” and a dancing Janece Shaffer, along with two ASPE members who have some skilled dance moves. Of course we sang along.

By: Amy Rush, Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Simulation at University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Our thirteenth ASPE president Dr. Lou Clark gave the ASPE president address during the opening session of the 2024 ASPE Conference in Vancouver, B.C. on Sunday, June 23. She began by acknowledging the work Jen Owens did as conference chair, not only for this ASPE conference, but for the past four years. She read a message on behalf of the current conference committee, thanking Owens for her, “exceptional service as the ASPE conference chair.” Clark then gave a talk called, “Our Story.” She highlighted ASPE’s mission and its members. We currently have 918 members from 44 countries and 65 are Canadian members! She recognized the 16 ASPE Board of Directors.

By: Amy Rush and Mary Launder

During the past year, many people contributed to the work of ASPE and our profession in several ways. At the 2023 ASPE Conference, we recognized some of these contributions with two award ceremonies.

By: Amy Rush, Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Simulation at University of Tennessee Health Science Center

We all remember preparing for our first ASPE conference. What sessions will I attend? Will I be overwhelmed with too much to do? What if nobody talks to me? What if I don’t like the hotel coffee?

Lead Author: Marco Antonio de Carvalho Filho
Submitted by: Sharon Baker, Grand Valley State University

The authors of this study examined how to use an educational method called Co-Constructive Patient Simulation (CCPS) to improve professional development in healthcare. They participated in simulated scenarios aligned with their developmental stages and needs. This method integrates learning opportunities in clinical practice, amplifies learners’ critical reflection and autonomy and harnesses real-life challenges.
Read more about the study here.

By: Samantha Syms, University of Miami Gordon Center 

Belinda Fu, MD, is a family physician, educator, and performing artist based in Seattle. During the ASPE 2023 opening plenary session, Dr. Fu asked us to consider how we can thrive in this uncertain world. She shared her experiences with improvisation as a physician, patient, educator, and actor, and explained the power of improv to transform the way we move through the world.

Lead Author: Océane Richard
Submitted by: Michelle Fernandez, University of Miami

“The present study suggests that simulation-based training may be effective to change attitudes and skills for suicide risk assessment and crisis intervention, with promising preliminary results regarding changes in behaviors and patients’ outcomes. However, numerous limitations must be acknowledged, and many challenges remain. More research of higher methodological quality must be developed.”

Lead Author: Igal Iancu
Submitted by: Laura Harris and Carys Fritz, OHSU

This article describes how the authors utilized an innovative virtual patient simulation platform to develop successful impact measurement of the educational activities that can be applied to Continuing Medical Education (CME). The new platform is designed to assess learners’ knowledge and competency in the management of type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure.

Lead Author: Easton N. Wollney
Submitted by: Amy Lorion, NBOME

This article purports to be a comparison between two types of raters, SPs and “outside observers with training in healthcare communication,” with the evidence demonstrating that the SPs were more lenient in their scoring on both subjective items (e.g., “used effective body language”) and objective items (e.g., “The resident told the patient she should not start smoking again”). However, as the authors acknowledge partway through the article, there was another glaring factor: the SPs only scored the encounters live, based on memory, and the non-SP observers only scored the encounters via recorded videos; hence, “evaluator type was tied to evaluator method in this study.” This article is worth reading—the differences between the groups’ scores are telling and support several of the discussion points (e.g., cognitive load)—despite the mixed approach which undercuts the assertion that it’s a comparison of rater types per se.

Lead Author: Sarah Prediger
Submitted by: Nicholas Gonzalez, Gordon Center for Simulation and Innovation in Medical Education, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

In the realm of SP work, there may come variation in perspective. What one might determine is an effective patient encounter, another may interpret as one that was less effective or poor in nature. Sarah Prediger and Sigrid Harendza, of the University Hospital of Hamburg-Eppendorf, sought to shine a light on this and many other possible discretions in SP evaluation of communication and interpersonal skills. They had SPs assess medical learners from an internal- and external-patient perspective and discuss their findings of interest.

Author: Jeremy J. Webb, M.D.
Submitted by: Janice Radway, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

The author suggests that ChatGPT can be used to teach physicians how to break bad news. This is a skill that has been taught effectively through a combination of didactics and practice with simulated patients. The author has ChatGPT create a scenario, have a written dialogue with the physician and then offer feedback based on how his words aligned with the SPIKES framework for breaking bad news. Does this come close to the impact of human interaction and SP methodology? Read for yourself here. 

By: Lisa Altshuler
Submitted by: Marsha Harman, Rush Center for Clinical Skills and Simulation

In my own conversations with SPs and other SP educators, we have often discussed how SP work alters our perceptions of our real-life patient experience and makes us better advocates for ourselves and our family members when navigating the healthcare system. This article takes a more concrete look at the difference between SPs’ and real patients’ perceptions of care. 

By: Lance Baily | Submitted by: Darrell Brock, University of Pittsburgh

Medical Simulation is being practiced to train the next wave of crews in space! 

ASPE Scholar Certificate

The awards ceremony started with the ASPE Scholars Certificate presented by Jacqueline R. Klevan
ASPE Scholars complete the required Basic of Scholarship session, as well as requirements in qualitative and/or quantitative measurement and electives, either from the ASPE conference itself or relevant, comparable content from other conferences.

By: Janice Radway, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

I had the pleasure of attending the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare in January in Orlando. One of the highlights was attending the Lou Oberndorf Lecture on Innovation in Healthcare Simulation, featuring Ryan Leak. Leak is an executive coach, best-selling author, and motivational speaker. He spoke about Chasing Failure (the name of his book and humorous documentary about his attempt to qualify for the Phoenix Suns NBA team.) His message was to embrace failure, because we learn from our mistakes, and it brings us closer to our goals. We hold ourselves back when we fear failure, but failure is how we move forward. He made the audience of 4,000 attendees laugh and inspired us to chase some failure of our own.

Lead author: Angelina Fluet | Submitted by: Erin Walsh, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science 

To gather Standardized Patients perspectives on bias the authors designed a qualitative interview study and conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 SPs. The interviews were conducted from July to September of 2020. It was concluded that bias occurs in multiple directions including SP-to student. student-to SP, student-to character, and SP- to -character. Additionally, SPs shared they feel there is bias during scenario development and SP recruitment and training. The authors determined that identifying areas where bias occurs can help simulationists alleviate bias.