page_title: Simulation
section_title: Computer simulators
hierarchical_section_title: Simulation / Clinical healthcare simulators / Type of models / Computer simulators
caption_attribution_description: English: A screenshot from the 3DiTeams game, player is percussing chest Source: Duke University Human Simulation and Patient Safety Center. Archived here
context_page_description: A simulation is an approximate imitation of the operation of a process or system; that represents its operation over time.
  Simulation is used in many contexts, such as simulation of technology for performance tuning or optimizing, safety engineering, testing, training, education, and video games. Often, computer experiments are used to study simulation models. Simulation is also used with scientific modelling of natural systems or human systems to gain insight into their functioning, as in economics. Simulation can be used to show the eventual real effects of alternative conditions and courses of action. Simulation is also used when the real system cannot be engaged, because it may not be accessible, or it may be dangerous or unacceptable to engage, or it is being designed but not yet built, or it may simply not exist.
  Key issues in simulation include the acquisition of valid sources of information about the relevant selection of key characteristics and behaviors, the use of simplifying approximations and assumptions within the simulation, and fidelity and validity of the simulation outcomes.
context_section_description: Simulators have been proposed as an ideal tool for assessment of students for clinical skills. For patients, "cybertherapy" can be used for sessions simulating traumatic experiences, from fear of heights to social anxiety.
  Programmed patients and simulated clinical situations, including mock disaster drills, have been used extensively for education and evaluation. These "lifelike" simulations are expensive, and lack reproducibility. A fully functional "3Di" simulator would be the most specific tool available for teaching and measurement of clinical skills. Gaming platforms have been applied to create these virtual medical environments to create an interactive method for learning and application of information in a clinical context.
  Immersive disease state simulations allow a doctor or HCP to experience what a disease actually feels like. Using sensors and transducers symptomatic effects can be delivered to a participant allowing them to experience the patients disease state.
  Such a simulator meets the goals of an objective and standardized examination for clinical competence. This system is superior to examinations that use "standard patients" because it permits the quantitative measurement of competence, as well as reproducing the same objective findings.
caption: 3DiTeams learner is percussing the patient's chest in virtual field hospital
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