Halldale Group editor Marty Kauchak provides an update on Pediatric Sim, a new entry in the serious game for medical training sector.

Jim Gerard, MD, a professor and the medical director of the Web-PALS Program in the Division of Emergency Medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine and Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center, is leading the development of Pediatric Sim. Gerard explained that Pediatric Sim (also known as PedSim) is a first-player focused serious game designed to fill an existing, unmet requirement – to provide training to residents who have no experience as an ER physician working with pediatric cases.

Gerard’s industry partner is BreakAway Games, which delivers the serious game hardware and software. The US Office of Naval Research (ONR) provided initial funds to develop the product and complete a preliminary validation study.

The community expert placed the efforts to develop Pediatric Sim in the context of other returns on investment – in particular, permitting aspiring doctors to develop team training skills and rehearse for a medical procedure before the actual process begins.

Seven scenarios form the current Pediatric Sim instructional package. One of the scenarios is a two-part learning case that is based on a case with a patient in supraventricular tachycardia.

The preliminary validation study on Pediatric Sim was completed at the end of 2015. While the primary outcome data “look very good”, an analysis of secondary data is on the program’s 2016 roadmap. At the same time, Gerard intends to propose the serious game be implemented systematically in some way. “That may be as an adjunct to the Pediatric Life Support courses at this school later this year,” he remarked.

In an effort to obtain additional qualitative feedback about the game, Gerard has established a dialogue with prospective end users.

In one instance, the St. Louis-based educator is continuing his discussions with senior medical department leaders from USNS Comfort (T-AH 20) prior to the ship’s spring 2016 deployment. “They spend a lot of time when they go to foreign countries and train with host nations’ personnel to support disaster relief and related missions,” Gerard explained and added, “When they are on their disaster missions they take care of a lot of pediatric patients. The embarked physicians primarily treat adult patients. So having a tool they can use for training in pediatrics is something they are excited about.” Indeed, the Pediatric Sim team’s intention is to have the Comfort’s medical staff use the serious game during this year’s deployment.

Gerard also reported on-going discussions with the US Air Force Medical Modeling and Simulation Training program in San Antonio to enlist their partnership in the program.

Beyond the military community, talks are underway with US academic hospitals, with the prospect of “giving the game at one point this year to a small number within that community as well, so they can start looking at it in academic medicine.”

Also in 2016, Gerard will seek additional ONR funding to continue developing the game. “While we think the game is good right now, obviously our goal is to make it great,” he added. As part of the proposal for additional funding, a second validation study would be conducted most likely in 2017. So whereas the initial, recently completed validation study looked at the game as if it were used as an assessment tool – when someone plays through the scenario and gets a certain score, and then correlating that score to his or her experience level, for instance – the second study would examine how the game affects knowledge if it was used as a training tool. The second study would be conducted at St. Louis University as well as three military sites that supported the preliminary study.