October 21, 2025 • 31 mins
A near-drowning in the Norwegian fjords set a family on a path that would change how the world learns to save lives. We sit down with Jon Laerdal, Chief Product Officer at Laerdal Medical, to explore the unlikely journey from toy design to Resusci Anne, from classroom CPR to on‑the‑unit practice that measurably improves survival.
Jon pulls back the curtain on how evidence and guidelines have shaped Laerdal’s resuscitation portfolio and why RQI—Resuscitation Quality Improvement—now embedded in 3,000 U.S. hospitals, is redefining competency with low‑dose, high‑frequency training. We dive into the Safer Births program in Tanzania, co‑created with the American Academy of Pediatrics and Jhpiego, where frequent, team‑based simulations on the ward correlate with dramatic reductions in newborn and maternal deaths. The thread through it all is a simple, rigorous idea: put practice where care happens, make it frequent, and let data guide improvement.
We also talk about the tech landscape without the hype. VR and mixed reality bring decision‑making into virtual and blended spaces, while AI lightens scenario design and powers more responsive debriefs. But the payoff comes when these tools join a circular learning model—reading, skills, simulation, team training, and clinical practice—connected by actionable insights. That is where simulation evolves from a one‑off event to a quality improvement engine that exposes latent safety threats and closes the gap between training and therapy.
If more than half of global deaths stem from time‑critical emergencies, preparing responders everywhere is not optional; it’s urgent. Jon shares Laerdal’s goal to help save one million more lives by 2030 and offers concrete steps educators and leaders can take to build cultures of practice that stick. Subscribe, share with a colleague who champions simulation, and leave a review with one question you want us to ask our next guest.
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Disclaimer/ SIM vs/ Intro (00:00):
The views and opinions expressed in
this program are those of thespeakers and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions orpositions of anyone at
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Thanks to SIMVS for sponsoringthis week's episode.
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Welcome to The Sim Cafe, apodcast produced by the team at
Innovative Sim Solutions, editedby Shelly Houser.
Join our host, Deb Tauber, andco-host Jerrod Jeffries as they
(01:08):
sit down with subject matterexperts from across the globe to
reimagine clinical educationand the use of simulation.
So pour yourself a cup ofrelaxation, sit back, tune in,
and learn something new from TheSim Cafe.
Deb Tauber (01:33):
Welcome to The Sim Cafe podcast, where we bring
together leaders, educators, andinnovators shaping the world of
healthcare simulation.
I'm your host, Deb Tauber, andco-host Jerrod Jeffries, and
today we're honored to welcome atruly visionary guest, Jon
Laerdal, Chief Product Officerof Laerdal Medical.
For more than 75 years, Laerdalhas been dedicated to the
(01:57):
mission of saving lives,pioneering innovations that have
transformed healthcare,training, and patient safety
across the globe.
Welcome and thank you, Jon, forbeing a guest today.
Jon Laerdal (02:09):
Thank you.
I'm glad to be here.
Jerrod Jeffries (02:10):
That's uh a lot to start off with, but I think
that the company Laerdal needsvery little to any introduction,
but I'll I'll mention a fewwords before we we dig in.
Because of course, we want tohear more about you, your role
and your history within thecompany, but also what you're
doing today.
And I think that there'sthere's two parts of Laerdal as
(02:34):
a company, with one, of course,being Global Evil's leaders in
both the healthcare simulationside and it's also
resuscitation.
But I want to first focus onthe company's mission of helping
save lives and how that'spotentially evolved throughout
the years.
Can you take us through thelong journey down a you know a
visual museum here, startingfrom the early beginning to
(02:54):
where we are today?
Jon Laerdal (02:56):
Sure.
The company was founded in uh1940 by my grandfather.
And the focus at the time wasuh as a publishing company,
publishing books, but also soonafter started developing toys
for children.
So the mission back then wasn'thelping save lives, but it was
uh creating children's joy.
And a long story short, mygrandfather and his colleagues
(03:18):
they made very successful, a bigrange of different uh toys.
And one was an Annie mannequin,but it was an Annie doll.
And he had a traumatic episodein in the 50s, my grandfather,
where my father had anear-drowning accident.
So he was just floating in thein the fjords of Norway, uh,
kept floating by an air pocketin his raincoat.
(03:42):
So this was before the birth ofCPR in 1960, and my grandfather
did what he thought was best todo, and he got uh air out of
the lungs of my father, who wasonly two at the time, and he
successfully uh brought him backto life.
And uh this was uh both atraumatic experience, as you can
imagine, but also a veryinspirational moment for the
(04:06):
founder.
So after this episode, hededicated himself with his
colleagues to help train andprepare other lifesavers to do
what he had to do.
And he got uh in contact withum various healthcare leaders,
including uh Dr.
Peter Safar, sometimes referredto as the father of CPR.
(04:27):
And together they code createdthe first Annie mannequin, which
we sometimes refer to as thefirst patient simulator.
So that's really uh a bit inshort how the company evolved
from creating children's joythrough building up a know-how
on creating products forchildren, but also plastics and
going from an ani doll to alife-sized Annie simulator,
(04:50):
which has helped uh train a lotof people.
Uh AHA has estimated about 500million in uh getting trained
and prepared for for acting inthe moment of a cardiac arrest
patient.
And they also estimate thatit's uh has helped uh save two
and a half million people.
That's some of the of thehistory we have.
Jerrod Jeffries (05:06):
That's pretty incredible.
And in AHA being the AmericanHeart Association.
Jon Laerdal (05:11):
Yes, yes.
Jerrod Jeffries (05:11):
Yeah, so so you have statistics that's showing
that just yeah, it's it's hardto even fathom the amount of
lives that due to a extremelyunfortunate incident that that
turned out to be okay, but thatone situation then led to the
survival and the ability to saveso many lives decades later.
Jon Laerdal (05:34):
Yeah, and of course, we are playing a small
part into that.
My grandfather chose the symbolof the Good Samaritan.
That was the ex librus of hisuh father-in-law, who was a
surgeon, and he chose thatbecause it reflected really the
focus on the helper, which isalso why we have the slogan of
helping save lives.
So, of course, Laerdol as acompany and our products doesn't
(05:57):
save lives, but we help prepareuh and equip lifesavers to act
in the in the moment.
So that's of course how we havehelped.
But we're quite uh proud abouthaving had that opportunity to
to help so many lifesavers getuh get trained and prepared via
big organizations like AmericanHeart Association and many, many
other organizations whoactually are, of course, doing
(06:19):
the real work and getting peopletrained and the lifesavers to
act in the moment.
Deb Tauber (06:24):
Thank you.
That's the first time I'veheard that story, and I truly
got the chills hearing it.
It's an amazing, amazing storyto start out making creating joy
for for children, and then tosuddenly be swept into the
reality of hey, we need to dosomething different here.
Your father had to be just sooverwhelmed with emotions of
(06:46):
thinking that your your fatherwouldn't be okay and how
resuscitation at that timewasn't something that was
anything that was even thoughtof, I'm sure.
Jerrod Jeffries (06:56):
Yeah, and I think times like those, that's
when some people think you'recrazy, right?
You're you're pushing onsomeone's chest and you're
thinking, okay, what do you whatare you doing?
And it's always, I think it'swas it the Cassandra when you
when you think you're when youthink you're right, but you're
too early to be right.
And then it's like, I mean,obviously that you see the
science behind resuscitation nowand fast forward a couple
(07:18):
decades or even go back a coupledecades, and people think,
okay, well, healthcaresimulation, a farce, it's not
really something.
And then now we're seeing moreand more data emerge.
And of course, Laerdol'staking, taking the ring there of
pushing innovation forward andhelping partners, of course, to
your term, Jon, helping themsave lives.
Deb Tauber (07:35):
So now we'll get more into simulation, but first
tell us about the other side ofLaerdal and how the company's
focusing on the resuscitationmarket.
Jon Laerdal (07:45):
Yeah, I did just uh refer to how we got into it
with that uh experience of thefounder.
And we then launched the firstResourcean in 1960, which is
also considered to be the birthof CPR as a method.
And we've been very closelyfollowing uh research and
evidence, in particular the theguidelines from Ilcor and HA and
(08:07):
ERC and other restationcouncil, and always tried to to
um to meet the evolving needs asper the guidelines throughout
the decades.
So you can really, if you wereto go back or go into a museum,
you can sort of see theguidelines and what they said
was the need at the time.
And then we've responded withthe story of Resocian is really
(08:28):
that it has evolved for theneeds of the guidelines.
Today we we have a big range uhof restation products, both in
therapy and in training.
We support a range of uhsegments from the lay people, as
maybe 70 to 80 percent ofcardiac arrest happen in the
home.
So we need to help people wherethey are.
And that's why we've alwaysbeen very committed to helping
(08:50):
train lay people in thecommunity via voluntary
organizations.
And there's of course uh lotsof healthcare students getting
trained and uh and also thehealthcare professionals.
And we have everything fromsuction and airway products in
the therapy range from newbornsto to geriatric mannequins and
simulators to help really trainrelevant scenarios.
(09:11):
And then we also we've workedclosely.
We have an we have an alliancewith the American Heart
Association and establish ajoint venture in uh 2018.
And that was really to scale upand focus on a solution we're
very excited about, and that isnow in 3,000 hospitals out of
5,000 in the US, which is RQI,and it's all about democratizing
(09:34):
really the access to CPRtraining so that you don't only
have to go to a course, whichmight not be practical, but you
can actually get training on thejob little and often, so-called
low dose high frequency.
So we have uh today um aportfolio that's evolved and
responded to the various needsthat we see from evidence, and
we have instructor-led solutionsand we have this self-directed
(09:55):
solution where we have now morethan four million people in in
uh predominantly the US that aretaking their CPR training and
certification via the RQI systemwith American Heart
Association.
Jerrod Jeffries (10:07):
Thank you.
Pretty impressive.
I mean, it's it it isincredible though to see how
one, you listen to users, buttwo, you also adapt to market, I
don't say conditions, but theway the market needs and feels
based off evidence.
And I mean RQI resuscitationquality improvement is simply a
testament to this.
And then of and then I thinkthat, and correct me if I'm
(10:30):
wrong here, but I also heardsome people talking about this
Laerdol Global Health.
Could you give us a little bitof information on on that piece
too?
Because I know that's separate,or is that the same, or how
does that work with with LaerdolMedical?
So Laerdol Global Health is anot-for-profit company.
(11:14):
It was set up to help trainbirth attendants to respond to
um the most serious situationson the day of birth, so both for
the mother and the baby.
So every day there's about6,000 babies dying every day,
and about 800 mothers dyingevery day.
And most of these arepreventable, and most of these
(11:35):
are happening in lower sourcesettings.
So via our amazing network,including JopaiGo and American
Academy of Pediatrics, we wereexposed to seeing some enormous
opportunities to help make adifference.
So we've been working withAmerican Academy of Pediatrics
and JopaiGo and many otherorganizations to then understand
the needs for these birthattendants and scale then really
(11:58):
effectful programs.
So, yeah, that's that's thestory of LGH.
And today it's been bringingforth uh something I think is
quite uh exciting within thesimulation space, a program
called Safer Birds.
And it's really a combinationof what was developed both with
AP and Jabigo, bringing helpingbabies breathe and uh helping
mothers survive together.
(12:19):
And a bit similar to the RQIstory I was alluding to earlier.
It's all about putting asimulation training system into
on the job.
You put basically available andscalable and easy to use and uh
low cost, highlyevidence-based.
You put that exactly wherepeople are working.
So to me, this is one of themost exciting developments and
(12:42):
interesting developments thatare happening now, largely in
Tanzania.
I was actually there thissummer with my family and I got
to see it personally.
It was amazing.
So you have in the simulationspace, people are of course very
busy, they're often clinicaland barely have time.
And the same applies to verybusy healthcare providers in in
at this hospital in in Tanzaniaand Haydn.
(13:04):
But then again, they stillmanage to carve out and they
train two times a week for theirskills training, and every
second week simulation training.
And I find that extremelyinteresting.
And they train because they seeand experience that there's
more babies and motherssurviving.
So you get this flywheeleffect.
And to me, that is almost likeseeing the vision for what I
(13:25):
think simulation should be in uhin the high resource settings.
That you can you train on thejob little and often, and you
only train on what's reallyrelevant, and then you're
applying and bridging that gapfrom training to therapy.
And then we can like RQY, wecan see how many and where do
they train and when they go fromA to B by data-driven feedback.
So that's some of the that wasa lot.
(13:47):
Sorry, but that was a lot.
You you brought me into all ofthat now.
I love it with asking on theglobal health.
So that's some of the contextfor that company and and some of
the programs we've helped uhco-create with AAP and Japaigo
and other partners.
And it's wonderful to see that Laerdal
has its hands in so manydifferent areas to rise or lift
(14:08):
up health equality in thedifferent areas globally.
I mean, it's it because I thinkyou know, most people probably
who hear or know of LaerdalMedical, they think of the the
US or maybe Australia, UK, partsof Europe.
And it's great to see that notonly is the foundational arm,
but also that of the the globalhealth, which is I think it was
(14:28):
sub-Saharan Africa or differentparts of Africa you were
mentioning.
So and I'm sure, I'm surebeyond.
But I I do want to shift gearsa little and over to the
simulation side.
And my first question, and Idon't know if you can hear this,
but is it true?
Uh I think I can hear it now.
And this Michael Jackson song,Smooth Criminal, is Annie Are
(14:58):
You Okay?
Does that have reference to aLaerdal Annie mannequin?
Jon Laerdal (15:03):
That is indeed true.
So um, we didn't know thatbefore some years ago.
And uh I was a product managerof uh Resociana at the time and
found this just incredible.
So yeah, Michael Jackson uh hadgone to a CPR.
I don't know if he actuallywent to a CPR training class,
but he was exposed to that.
And when they're following theprotocol and going, Annie Annie,
(15:24):
are you okay?
Are you okay?
And he he thought that soundedso catchy that he ended up uh
putting that into I've forgottenhow many times it's mentioned
in that smooth criminal, butit's a lot of times.
Yeah, it's quite mind-boggling.
Jerrod Jeffries (15:38):
No, but it I mean it's it's probably the most
I mean now okay, now Siri mighthave outdone it, but or Alexa,
Siri or Alexa, but it probablywas the most used name for a
good while.
Jon Laerdal (15:50):
That's true.
You mean Annie?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
There was Princess Annie in thein the UK, and of course it was
a name that worked worked bothin Norway and internationally.
So there was some reasons likethat that was behind picking it.
Yeah, and Michael Jacksonseeing it, who knows how many
fans.
Deb Tauber (16:06):
So yeah, yeah.
Jerrod Jeffries (16:08):
Uh but you know, that's of course, that's
from the historical standpoint.
But now I wanna I want to lookinto the future here as well.
And so as chief productofficer, this now we're
switching hats again.
I want to hear your thoughtswith the the emergence of all
this new technology.
And you know, I don't I don'tthink throwing technology at any
(16:28):
one problem, you know, isnecessarily ever the solution.
But as we see this uh AI, VR,AR, XR, whatever you want to
call it, and how learning shapeseducation, how do you see these
types of innovations reallytransforming the simulation
landscape over the coming years?
And that can be it will saythree to five years.
Jon Laerdal (16:50):
That's a very good question.
And of course, we can allspeculate and we can follow what
we see.
So for us, it's um it's veryimportant to keep learning and
uh do something and learnhands-on.
So we have various activitiesongoing when it comes to VR and
uh mixed reality.
So we made some products withpartners such as uh Walter
(17:11):
Klober and National League ofNursing.
We're embedding in the VRclinicals case what students
need to be exposed to forclinical placement, but in a
virtual space.
So that's an example of takingVR and combining it also with AI
so you can have a conversationuh within that space and be
exposed to a busy word where youneed to sort of triage between
(17:32):
patients and really work on yourdecision making and judgment
skills.
That's one example.
We have mixed reality, where weshow that uh last year's IMSH
uh for use with the prompt andthe Mama An patient simulator.
And now we're working to makethat available also for other
simulators, and we'll show planto show some of that at the
(17:53):
upcoming ISH.
We believe in this uh method ofcircle of learning, so you can
acquire some knowledge and youcan get skills training, and you
can have in virtual simulationtraining be exposed to um
judgment and decision-makingskills, which of course can be
2D with screen-based or VR orMR.
And now there is, of course, anamazing digital revolution, and
(18:17):
we're trying to make sure thatwe're also paying attention in
class for that.
And there is a convergence nowof these technologies that is uh
quite uh mind-boggling.
So you asked about VR, MR, butalso data and AI, I believe.
Correct.
And and there was uh there's asaying about digital can can
help do better things, but uhcan also do things better.
(18:40):
So I think the existing thingscan clearly be much better, much
better and much more enhanced,and and various elements can be
more automated.
For example, going from VR andyou you automate more the
conversation.
That's one example.
Or if you can have AI in ascenario creation tool, so that
there's less steps, there's lessmanual work, and there can be
(19:02):
more type of AI enhancing andautomating features, not only to
automate, but also to make iteven better.
So there's various things thatwe're trying to follow.
I have noticed that uh in thelast couple of IMSH conferences
that uh the VR and MR times hasbeen, I believe, about a third
almost of the exhibition floor.
And it's interesting to followhow people are trying to see
(19:24):
what are the biggest needs thatcan scale.
So, again, we like others aretrying to see how we can best
help with educational toolsusing those technologies and
those learning modalities.
And for Laredol, it's reallyabout trying to have this
circular learning approach whereit's really holistically
thought through so that there isdifferent modes of learning
from reading a book to a lectureto a skills training to again
(19:47):
going into a virtual simulationor skills training environment
to then applying that in theTeams and then applying it in
clinical, and then youcontinuously go around.
So we're trying to view it fromthat angle, that it's not an
isolated or a sided approach,but we're trying to think quite
holistically.
And at the center of such acircular learning, you would
find data and actionableinsights.
(20:08):
So the more you can catch thedata from the various modes, but
also look at that moreholistically, we believe there's
a lot of value that could be umbrought forward for people
within education and in um andin healthcare.
Jerrod Jeffries (20:21):
I like that.
I think it's a more holistic ormicro macro way of looking at
technology than throwing saying,oh, like the new meta glasses
are are gonna, you know, gonnachange the game and or throw in
Chat GPT and everything's gonnabe.
I like that data sits in themiddle of it.
And yeah, I I think we shouldalso probably link that circle
(20:42):
of learning in in the show notesfor for our listeners.
But it's yeah, it's it's justholistic instead of just being
fragment fragmented, it's it's alot more of a larger approach.
Deb Tauber (20:53):
Now you alluded a little bit to this, but
Laerdol's formed powerfulcollaborations with
universities, NGOs, and globalhealth organizations.
Can you share an example of apartnership that's made a
meaningful difference in savinglives worldwide?
What would you put your putyour finger on that one?
Jon Laerdal (21:09):
Then I'd like to go back to to Tanzania from this
summer.
I was there with my family andgot to try it hands-on and see
the CEO of the hospital takingthis uh on-the-job training
there and then.
So when you have that learningsystem placed in the clinical
space and uh people areintrinsically motivated to train
little and often, I think thatis incredible to see.
(21:32):
And I think that's what weshould try and bring out and
bring forward in the simulationcommunity worldwide.
So that program was co-createdwith many partners, including uh
Jupaigo and American Academy ofPediatrics.
It's also been funded by theWorld Bank, an armor of the
World Bank called the GlobalFinancing Facility, where this
was one out of many, manyhundred different projects that
(21:54):
were competing for funding.
And it came to the final roundand has got uh substantial
funding, more than 10 million USdollars to scale in Tanzania.
So, what is uh more interestingis that, uh and more important
is that not only is this uh alow job, dose, high frequency
type training in the worksetting, but it's uh it's an
evidence-based simulationprogram.
(22:15):
But I think there's a lot oflearning to be taking because
this is not about something thathappens in lower source
settings.
I think this is extremely uhvaluable to learn from.
So, what has been proven withmore than 100 research papers in
the last 15 years and thebiggest newborn prestation
research program ever, includingmore than 300,000 birds.
(22:36):
Long story short is that whenyou train people in a course,
you could measure some impact,but there wasn't really a
translation to clinicalperformance.
And what they found and provenin uh all these research papers
is that when you train littleand often embedded into a
quality improvement culture, itreally changes and has an
impact.
And they found that for babieswho many die from birth
(22:57):
asphyxia, there was up to ahalf, uh 50% reduction in uh in
death for the for the newbornsafter people have been doing
this low dose high frequencytraining.
And what uh surprised theresearcher even more was that uh
there was up to uh 70%, sevenzero reduction in mothers dying.
So, what I think is justunbelievable, and that we see
(23:19):
and learn from these healthcareresearchers and healthcare
providers in uh in Tanzania isthat you can track how often
they do the team-basedsimulation.
And what they find is that whenthey're in the team-based
simulations, they realize theywant to go back individually and
they take their own sort ofinitiative to do go back and do
skills training.
So, because the skills trainingsystems is just available and
(23:40):
it's it's not uh you don't needan instructor or a course or go
and find it, it's just there asa self-training station.
You can see the growth of theamount of training and you can
see the performance.
And again, that translates andbridges the gap from training to
therapy.
So that's a lot of the visionand I think the value creation
that we see that when you havedata collecting products and
(24:01):
when you can have datacollecting performance, and you
send that real time to thehealthcare provider or the team,
but also use that forsystematic quality improvement
within the system, you reallyget an amazing flywheel.
And so, for people who want tolearn more about that, I would
just uh recommend to Google Safefor Birds and you can go there.
And there are some really greatpresentations also by Professor
(24:24):
Heger Afstall that summarizesthis.
Uh and they also reallysystematically use this uh
circular learning approach to toreally drive that quality
improvement initiative.
Deb Tauber (24:34):
Excellent.
So I'm a little curious here.
So you go on vacation toTanzania with your family, and
so instead of saying, okay,okay, folks, we're gonna go on a
safari, you say we're gonna govisit a hospital.
Is it is that what yourvacation is?
Jon Laerdal (24:50):
That was a good question.
Yeah.
Um it was actually my myfather, who is the chairman of
the company, and my mother havebeen celebrating the golden
anniversary.
And so this was a specialbucket list uh kind of
imitation.
And myself with my wife andkids and my sisters and their
families were invited.
And we had two, three days ofsafari, and then we we went to
this hospital, and especially aTorah.
(25:11):
My father has been togetherwith uh my sister working very
closely with this for for about15 years.
I've only seen this thehospital and pictures of it on
slides, and so it was quitemind-boggling to be there.
And again, when you're there,because you can read about these
things when you're there andyou hear and you feel how the
leaders and also the birthattendants are talking about why
they care and why they train.
(25:32):
That was to me, it's hard toarticulate the takeaway there,
but it was something I thinkreally special where if you can
make people train little andoften because they want to and
because they can see and feelthe direct life saving, I think
you can't you can't get anythingbetter.
So I'm really wondering abouthow do we capitalize on those
learnings and how do we makegreat products into that and
really scale that into uhhealthcare worldwide.
Deb Tauber (25:54):
I love it.
Jerrod Jeffries (25:56):
I won't ask you where your next vacation is
going to be, Jon, but uh I'msure it's probably another
hospital somewhere.
Jon Laerdal (26:01):
Stavanger hospital, yeah.
Jerrod Jeffries (26:04):
I want to kind of wrap this up sooner than
later, but I do want to ask uhgoing back to the simulation
side, is one what excites youthe most, but also what message
do you want to really leave withthe simulationists and the
educators around the world?
Jon Laerdal (26:19):
I think what excites me the most is a
combination of a couple ofthings.
It's really capitalizing onwhat technology now enables.
That is absolutelymind-boggling.
And I think putting that incontext of some of the things
we've learned is really thegreat cocktail we can uh we can
come up with.
So if we can get people totrain little and often and
really um have lower cost andhigher impact simulation
(26:41):
systems, both for instructor-ledbut also self-training.
And what excites me is reallytrying to bridge that gap
between training and therapythat we touched on.
So to make that happen in notonly the day of birth setting,
but to make it happen within anytime critical emergencies.
And to train people inpre-service and in-service, I
think is uh is the most excitingopportunity.
(27:03):
More than 30 million people dieevery year.
That's half of the populationthat dies every year.
More than half die from timecritical emergencies.
And we've set the goal to helpsave one million more lives by
2030.
And that Safe for Birds programalone, if scaled well globally,
could help save 200,000 morelives.
So there are examples like thiswhere we know from
(27:23):
evidence-based, if you scale itup, there's an enormous
potential to help save morelives.
So I think to be really greatat technology and business model
innovation and create betterand better products that
capitalizes on the technologiesand drive for impact and
scalability.
And lastly, I think also tomove simulation to be, and this
I know has been a talk in thecommunity for a long, long time.
(27:44):
And I think there's still a lotof more untapped opportunity
and value there, but to go morefrom training into more
healthcare quality improvementand use simulation for, and
there's different terms forthis, translational simulation
or transformative, but to reallyapply it to to test and to
embed and to improve healthcare,everything from the more
traditional training teams andindividual skills, but more
(28:08):
going and just focusing on thesystem and find those latent
safety threats.
That I think is extremelyexciting that simulation can
have an enormous impact to find,uncover, and reduce
systematically uh safety threatsto patients in healthcare.
Was there another question inthere?
Jerrod Jeffries (28:24):
No, that was again a good, pretty solid
answer.
I like that.
Deb Tauber (28:28):
Yeah, we are so grateful to have had you today.
Thank you so much.
Now, in closing, again, I'mgonna ask you what does it feel
like to be Jon Laerdol?
And how would you like to beremembered?
Jon Laerdal (28:41):
That's a big difficult question.
I um professionally I like tobe remembered as somebody who
who uh was good to work with.
And uh and uh helped enable uh,first of all, now towards 2030,
a real impact on helping savelives, and beyond that to scale
(29:03):
simulation and lifesaver'spreparedness significantly
better.
I uh I think there's enormouspotential.
So I'd like to be remembered assomebody who helped drive that
agenda.
And uh personally, of course,as as a good listener and as a
curious person and as a as agood dad and a pretty decent uh
husband, I'd be good.
Deb Tauber (29:24):
Great, great.
Now, if our listeners want toget a hold of the company, where
should they go if they want tosupport some of these
initiatives or learn more aboutthem?
Jon Laerdal (29:33):
You can just go to Lairdel.com or you can Google uh
WhatMeal Lives.
And we're uh in more than 30countries with colleagues and
with our our offices, or you canjust find me on LinkedIn or
send me an email on john.laerdalat Laerdal.com.
I'll do my best to uh torespond quickly to that.
So yeah, we're totallyapproachable.
(29:53):
So happy to uh to meet up withpeople.
Deb Tauber (29:56):
Yes, I've been inspired by your humbleness
during this interview, and Ithank You so much.
unknown (30:01):
Thank you.
Jon Laerdal (30:01):
Likewise, thanks again for the invitation.
Deb Tauber (30:03):
Yeah.
Jared, do you have anything?
Jerrod Jeffries (30:06):
No, it's it's great to hear.
You know, I think Lairdal isseen, you know, at these
conferences, especially withmost of our listeners being on
the simulation side, butLairdol's seen as you know the
platinum premiere, whatever typeof sponsor, uh, in these large
halls around different differentvenues, and to see where you
(30:28):
started versus you know thegrowth of the company and then
also that of even where thefuture holds.
I mean, Tanzania and in lowresource settings, I don't want
to say dominated, but they had agood share of our time here.
And and I think that's you'relooking forward, you're not just
uh resting on your loins andsaying, okay, well, we did this.
(30:48):
Great job.
It's more of I I think theinnovativeness and what's next
and how do you continue tosupport and help has been it's
great to see.
And I think that can be sharedin the larger setting within
this industry.
And so thank you for your time.
Likewise, it was a pleasure.
Deb Tauber (31:06):
Thank you and happy simulating.
Disclaimer/ SIM vs/ Intr (31:11):
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Thanks for joining us here atthe Sim Cafe.
(31:33):
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(00:21):
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(00:43):
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To learn more, visitwww.simvs.com.
Welcome to The Sim Cafe, apodcast produced by the team at
Innovative Sim Solutions, editedby Shelly Houser.
Join our host, Deb Tauber, andco-host Jerrod Jeffries as they
(01:08):
sit down with subject matterexperts from across the globe to
reimagine clinical educationand the use of simulation.
So pour yourself a cup ofrelaxation, sit back, tune in,
and learn something new from TheSim Cafe.
Deb Tauber (01:33):
Welcome to The Sim Cafe podcast, where we bring
together leaders, educators, andinnovators shaping the world of
healthcare simulation.
I'm your host, Deb Tauber, andco-host Jerrod Jeffries, and
today we're honored to welcome atruly visionary guest, Jon
Laerdal, Chief Product Officerof Laerdal Medical.
For more than 75 years, Laerdalhas been dedicated to the
(01:57):
mission of saving lives,pioneering innovations that have
transformed healthcare,training, and patient safety
across the globe.
Welcome and thank you, Jon, forbeing a guest today.
Jon Laerdal (02:09):
Thank you.
I'm glad to be here.
Jerrod Jeffries (02:10):
That's uh a lot to start off with, but I think
that the company Laerdal needsvery little to any introduction,
but I'll I'll mention a fewwords before we we dig in.
Because of course, we want tohear more about you, your role
and your history within thecompany, but also what you're
doing today.
And I think that there'sthere's two parts of Laerdal as
(02:34):
a company, with one, of course,being Global Evil's leaders in
both the healthcare simulationside and it's also
resuscitation.
But I want to first focus onthe company's mission of helping
save lives and how that'spotentially evolved throughout
the years.
Can you take us through thelong journey down a you know a
visual museum here, startingfrom the early beginning to
(02:54):
where we are today?
Jon Laerdal (02:56):
Sure.
The company was founded in uh1940 by my grandfather.
And the focus at the time wasuh as a publishing company,
publishing books, but also soonafter started developing toys
for children.
So the mission back then wasn'thelping save lives, but it was
uh creating children's joy.
And a long story short, mygrandfather and his colleagues
(03:18):
they made very successful, a bigrange of different uh toys.
And one was an Annie mannequin,but it was an Annie doll.
And he had a traumatic episodein in the 50s, my grandfather,
where my father had anear-drowning accident.
So he was just floating in thein the fjords of Norway, uh,
kept floating by an air pocketin his raincoat.
(03:42):
So this was before the birth ofCPR in 1960, and my grandfather
did what he thought was best todo, and he got uh air out of
the lungs of my father, who wasonly two at the time, and he
successfully uh brought him backto life.
And uh this was uh both atraumatic experience, as you can
imagine, but also a veryinspirational moment for the
(04:06):
founder.
So after this episode, hededicated himself with his
colleagues to help train andprepare other lifesavers to do
what he had to do.
And he got uh in contact withum various healthcare leaders,
including uh Dr.
Peter Safar, sometimes referredto as the father of CPR.
(04:27):
And together they code createdthe first Annie mannequin, which
we sometimes refer to as thefirst patient simulator.
So that's really uh a bit inshort how the company evolved
from creating children's joythrough building up a know-how
on creating products forchildren, but also plastics and
going from an ani doll to alife-sized Annie simulator,
(04:50):
which has helped uh train a lotof people.
Uh AHA has estimated about 500million in uh getting trained
and prepared for for acting inthe moment of a cardiac arrest
patient.
And they also estimate thatit's uh has helped uh save two
and a half million people.
That's some of the of thehistory we have.
Jerrod Jeffries (05:06):
That's pretty incredible.
And in AHA being the AmericanHeart Association.
Jon Laerdal (05:11):
Yes, yes.
Jerrod Jeffries (05:11):
Yeah, so so you have statistics that's showing
that just yeah, it's it's hardto even fathom the amount of
lives that due to a extremelyunfortunate incident that that
turned out to be okay, but thatone situation then led to the
survival and the ability to saveso many lives decades later.
Jon Laerdal (05:34):
Yeah, and of course, we are playing a small
part into that.
My grandfather chose the symbolof the Good Samaritan.
That was the ex librus of hisuh father-in-law, who was a
surgeon, and he chose thatbecause it reflected really the
focus on the helper, which isalso why we have the slogan of
helping save lives.
So, of course, Laerdol as acompany and our products doesn't
(05:57):
save lives, but we help prepareuh and equip lifesavers to act
in the in the moment.
So that's of course how we havehelped.
But we're quite uh proud abouthaving had that opportunity to
to help so many lifesavers getuh get trained and prepared via
big organizations like AmericanHeart Association and many, many
other organizations whoactually are, of course, doing
(06:19):
the real work and getting peopletrained and the lifesavers to
act in the moment.
Deb Tauber (06:24):
Thank you.
That's the first time I'veheard that story, and I truly
got the chills hearing it.
It's an amazing, amazing storyto start out making creating joy
for for children, and then tosuddenly be swept into the
reality of hey, we need to dosomething different here.
Your father had to be just sooverwhelmed with emotions of
(06:46):
thinking that your your fatherwouldn't be okay and how
resuscitation at that timewasn't something that was
anything that was even thoughtof, I'm sure.
Jerrod Jeffries (06:56):
Yeah, and I think times like those, that's
when some people think you'recrazy, right?
You're you're pushing onsomeone's chest and you're
thinking, okay, what do you whatare you doing?
And it's always, I think it'swas it the Cassandra when you
when you think you're when youthink you're right, but you're
too early to be right.
And then it's like, I mean,obviously that you see the
science behind resuscitation nowand fast forward a couple
(07:18):
decades or even go back a coupledecades, and people think,
okay, well, healthcaresimulation, a farce, it's not
really something.
And then now we're seeing moreand more data emerge.
And of course, Laerdol'staking, taking the ring there of
pushing innovation forward andhelping partners, of course, to
your term, Jon, helping themsave lives.
Deb Tauber (07:35):
So now we'll get more into simulation, but first
tell us about the other side ofLaerdal and how the company's
focusing on the resuscitationmarket.
Jon Laerdal (07:45):
Yeah, I did just uh refer to how we got into it
with that uh experience of thefounder.
And we then launched the firstResourcean in 1960, which is
also considered to be the birthof CPR as a method.
And we've been very closelyfollowing uh research and
evidence, in particular the theguidelines from Ilcor and HA and
(08:07):
ERC and other restationcouncil, and always tried to to
um to meet the evolving needs asper the guidelines throughout
the decades.
So you can really, if you wereto go back or go into a museum,
you can sort of see theguidelines and what they said
was the need at the time.
And then we've responded withthe story of Resocian is really
(08:28):
that it has evolved for theneeds of the guidelines.
Today we we have a big range uhof restation products, both in
therapy and in training.
We support a range of uhsegments from the lay people, as
maybe 70 to 80 percent ofcardiac arrest happen in the
home.
So we need to help people wherethey are.
And that's why we've alwaysbeen very committed to helping
(08:50):
train lay people in thecommunity via voluntary
organizations.
And there's of course uh lotsof healthcare students getting
trained and uh and also thehealthcare professionals.
And we have everything fromsuction and airway products in
the therapy range from newbornsto to geriatric mannequins and
simulators to help really trainrelevant scenarios.
(09:11):
And then we also we've workedclosely.
We have an we have an alliancewith the American Heart
Association and establish ajoint venture in uh 2018.
And that was really to scale upand focus on a solution we're
very excited about, and that isnow in 3,000 hospitals out of
5,000 in the US, which is RQI,and it's all about democratizing
(09:34):
really the access to CPRtraining so that you don't only
have to go to a course, whichmight not be practical, but you
can actually get training on thejob little and often, so-called
low dose high frequency.
So we have uh today um aportfolio that's evolved and
responded to the various needsthat we see from evidence, and
we have instructor-led solutionsand we have this self-directed
(09:55):
solution where we have now morethan four million people in in
uh predominantly the US that aretaking their CPR training and
certification via the RQI systemwith American Heart
Association.
Jerrod Jeffries (10:07):
Thank you.
Pretty impressive.
I mean, it's it it isincredible though to see how
one, you listen to users, buttwo, you also adapt to market, I
don't say conditions, but theway the market needs and feels
based off evidence.
And I mean RQI resuscitationquality improvement is simply a
testament to this.
And then of and then I thinkthat, and correct me if I'm
(10:30):
wrong here, but I also heardsome people talking about this
Laerdol Global Health.
Could you give us a little bitof information on on that piece
too?
Because I know that's separate,or is that the same, or how
does that work with with LaerdolMedical?
So Laerdol Global Health is anot-for-profit company.
(11:14):
It was set up to help trainbirth attendants to respond to
um the most serious situationson the day of birth, so both for
the mother and the baby.
So every day there's about6,000 babies dying every day,
and about 800 mothers dyingevery day.
And most of these arepreventable, and most of these
(11:35):
are happening in lower sourcesettings.
So via our amazing network,including JopaiGo and American
Academy of Pediatrics, we wereexposed to seeing some enormous
opportunities to help make adifference.
So we've been working withAmerican Academy of Pediatrics
and JopaiGo and many otherorganizations to then understand
the needs for these birthattendants and scale then really
(11:58):
effectful programs.
So, yeah, that's that's thestory of LGH.
And today it's been bringingforth uh something I think is
quite uh exciting within thesimulation space, a program
called Safer Birds.
And it's really a combinationof what was developed both with
AP and Jabigo, bringing helpingbabies breathe and uh helping
mothers survive together.
(12:19):
And a bit similar to the RQIstory I was alluding to earlier.
It's all about putting asimulation training system into
on the job.
You put basically available andscalable and easy to use and uh
low cost, highlyevidence-based.
You put that exactly wherepeople are working.
So to me, this is one of themost exciting developments and
(12:42):
interesting developments thatare happening now, largely in
Tanzania.
I was actually there thissummer with my family and I got
to see it personally.
It was amazing.
So you have in the simulationspace, people are of course very
busy, they're often clinicaland barely have time.
And the same applies to verybusy healthcare providers in in
at this hospital in in Tanzaniaand Haydn.
(13:04):
But then again, they stillmanage to carve out and they
train two times a week for theirskills training, and every
second week simulation training.
And I find that extremelyinteresting.
And they train because they seeand experience that there's
more babies and motherssurviving.
So you get this flywheeleffect.
And to me, that is almost likeseeing the vision for what I
(13:25):
think simulation should be in uhin the high resource settings.
That you can you train on thejob little and often, and you
only train on what's reallyrelevant, and then you're
applying and bridging that gapfrom training to therapy.
And then we can like RQY, wecan see how many and where do
they train and when they go fromA to B by data-driven feedback.
So that's some of the that wasa lot.
(13:47):
Sorry, but that was a lot.
You you brought me into all ofthat now.
I love it with asking on theglobal health.
So that's some of the contextfor that company and and some of
the programs we've helped uhco-create with AAP and Japaigo
and other partners.
And it's wonderful to see that Laerdal
has its hands in so manydifferent areas to rise or lift
(14:08):
up health equality in thedifferent areas globally.
I mean, it's it because I thinkyou know, most people probably
who hear or know of LaerdalMedical, they think of the the
US or maybe Australia, UK, partsof Europe.
And it's great to see that notonly is the foundational arm,
but also that of the the globalhealth, which is I think it was
(14:28):
sub-Saharan Africa or differentparts of Africa you were
mentioning.
So and I'm sure, I'm surebeyond.
But I I do want to shift gearsa little and over to the
simulation side.
And my first question, and Idon't know if you can hear this,
but is it true?
Uh I think I can hear it now.
And this Michael Jackson song,Smooth Criminal, is Annie Are
(14:58):
You Okay?
Does that have reference to aLaerdal Annie mannequin?
Jon Laerdal (15:03):
That is indeed true.
So um, we didn't know thatbefore some years ago.
And uh I was a product managerof uh Resociana at the time and
found this just incredible.
So yeah, Michael Jackson uh hadgone to a CPR.
I don't know if he actuallywent to a CPR training class,
but he was exposed to that.
And when they're following theprotocol and going, Annie Annie,
(15:24):
are you okay?
Are you okay?
And he he thought that soundedso catchy that he ended up uh
putting that into I've forgottenhow many times it's mentioned
in that smooth criminal, butit's a lot of times.
Yeah, it's quite mind-boggling.
Jerrod Jeffries (15:38):
No, but it I mean it's it's probably the most
I mean now okay, now Siri mighthave outdone it, but or Alexa,
Siri or Alexa, but it probablywas the most used name for a
good while.
Jon Laerdal (15:50):
That's true.
You mean Annie?
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
There was Princess Annie in thein the UK, and of course it was
a name that worked worked bothin Norway and internationally.
So there was some reasons likethat that was behind picking it.
Yeah, and Michael Jacksonseeing it, who knows how many
fans.
Deb Tauber (16:06):
So yeah, yeah.
Jerrod Jeffries (16:08):
Uh but you know, that's of course, that's
from the historical standpoint.
But now I wanna I want to lookinto the future here as well.
And so as chief productofficer, this now we're
switching hats again.
I want to hear your thoughtswith the the emergence of all
this new technology.
And you know, I don't I don'tthink throwing technology at any
(16:28):
one problem, you know, isnecessarily ever the solution.
But as we see this uh AI, VR,AR, XR, whatever you want to
call it, and how learning shapeseducation, how do you see these
types of innovations reallytransforming the simulation
landscape over the coming years?
And that can be it will saythree to five years.
Jon Laerdal (16:50):
That's a very good question.
And of course, we can allspeculate and we can follow what
we see.
So for us, it's um it's veryimportant to keep learning and
uh do something and learnhands-on.
So we have various activitiesongoing when it comes to VR and
uh mixed reality.
So we made some products withpartners such as uh Walter
(17:11):
Klober and National League ofNursing.
We're embedding in the VRclinicals case what students
need to be exposed to forclinical placement, but in a
virtual space.
So that's an example of takingVR and combining it also with AI
so you can have a conversationuh within that space and be
exposed to a busy word where youneed to sort of triage between
(17:32):
patients and really work on yourdecision making and judgment
skills.
That's one example.
We have mixed reality, where weshow that uh last year's IMSH
uh for use with the prompt andthe Mama An patient simulator.
And now we're working to makethat available also for other
simulators, and we'll show planto show some of that at the
(17:53):
upcoming ISH.
We believe in this uh method ofcircle of learning, so you can
acquire some knowledge and youcan get skills training, and you
can have in virtual simulationtraining be exposed to um
judgment and decision-makingskills, which of course can be
2D with screen-based or VR orMR.
And now there is, of course, anamazing digital revolution, and
(18:17):
we're trying to make sure thatwe're also paying attention in
class for that.
And there is a convergence nowof these technologies that is uh
quite uh mind-boggling.
So you asked about VR, MR, butalso data and AI, I believe.
Correct.
And and there was uh there's asaying about digital can can
help do better things, but uhcan also do things better.
(18:40):
So I think the existing thingscan clearly be much better, much
better and much more enhanced,and and various elements can be
more automated.
For example, going from VR andyou you automate more the
conversation.
That's one example.
Or if you can have AI in ascenario creation tool, so that
there's less steps, there's lessmanual work, and there can be
(19:02):
more type of AI enhancing andautomating features, not only to
automate, but also to make iteven better.
So there's various things thatwe're trying to follow.
I have noticed that uh in thelast couple of IMSH conferences
that uh the VR and MR times hasbeen, I believe, about a third
almost of the exhibition floor.
And it's interesting to followhow people are trying to see
(19:24):
what are the biggest needs thatcan scale.
So, again, we like others aretrying to see how we can best
help with educational toolsusing those technologies and
those learning modalities.
And for Laredol, it's reallyabout trying to have this
circular learning approach whereit's really holistically
thought through so that there isdifferent modes of learning
from reading a book to a lectureto a skills training to again
(19:47):
going into a virtual simulationor skills training environment
to then applying that in theTeams and then applying it in
clinical, and then youcontinuously go around.
So we're trying to view it fromthat angle, that it's not an
isolated or a sided approach,but we're trying to think quite
holistically.
And at the center of such acircular learning, you would
find data and actionableinsights.
(20:08):
So the more you can catch thedata from the various modes, but
also look at that moreholistically, we believe there's
a lot of value that could be umbrought forward for people
within education and in um andin healthcare.
Jerrod Jeffries (20:21):
I like that.
I think it's a more holistic ormicro macro way of looking at
technology than throwing saying,oh, like the new meta glasses
are are gonna, you know, gonnachange the game and or throw in
Chat GPT and everything's gonnabe.
I like that data sits in themiddle of it.
And yeah, I I think we shouldalso probably link that circle
(20:42):
of learning in in the show notesfor for our listeners.
But it's yeah, it's it's justholistic instead of just being
fragment fragmented, it's it's alot more of a larger approach.
Deb Tauber (20:53):
Now you alluded a little bit to this, but
Laerdol's formed powerfulcollaborations with
universities, NGOs, and globalhealth organizations.
Can you share an example of apartnership that's made a
meaningful difference in savinglives worldwide?
What would you put your putyour finger on that one?
Jon Laerdal (21:09):
Then I'd like to go back to to Tanzania from this
summer.
I was there with my family andgot to try it hands-on and see
the CEO of the hospital takingthis uh on-the-job training
there and then.
So when you have that learningsystem placed in the clinical
space and uh people areintrinsically motivated to train
little and often, I think thatis incredible to see.
(21:32):
And I think that's what weshould try and bring out and
bring forward in the simulationcommunity worldwide.
So that program was co-createdwith many partners, including uh
Jupaigo and American Academy ofPediatrics.
It's also been funded by theWorld Bank, an armor of the
World Bank called the GlobalFinancing Facility, where this
was one out of many, manyhundred different projects that
(21:54):
were competing for funding.
And it came to the final roundand has got uh substantial
funding, more than 10 million USdollars to scale in Tanzania.
So, what is uh more interestingis that, uh and more important
is that not only is this uh alow job, dose, high frequency
type training in the worksetting, but it's uh it's an
evidence-based simulationprogram.
(22:15):
But I think there's a lot oflearning to be taking because
this is not about something thathappens in lower source
settings.
I think this is extremely uhvaluable to learn from.
So, what has been proven withmore than 100 research papers in
the last 15 years and thebiggest newborn prestation
research program ever, includingmore than 300,000 birds.
(22:36):
Long story short is that whenyou train people in a course,
you could measure some impact,but there wasn't really a
translation to clinicalperformance.
And what they found and provenin uh all these research papers
is that when you train littleand often embedded into a
quality improvement culture, itreally changes and has an
impact.
And they found that for babieswho many die from birth
(22:57):
asphyxia, there was up to ahalf, uh 50% reduction in uh in
death for the for the newbornsafter people have been doing
this low dose high frequencytraining.
And what uh surprised theresearcher even more was that uh
there was up to uh 70%, sevenzero reduction in mothers dying.
So, what I think is justunbelievable, and that we see
(23:19):
and learn from these healthcareresearchers and healthcare
providers in uh in Tanzania isthat you can track how often
they do the team-basedsimulation.
And what they find is that whenthey're in the team-based
simulations, they realize theywant to go back individually and
they take their own sort ofinitiative to do go back and do
skills training.
So, because the skills trainingsystems is just available and
(23:40):
it's it's not uh you don't needan instructor or a course or go
and find it, it's just there asa self-training station.
You can see the growth of theamount of training and you can
see the performance.
And again, that translates andbridges the gap from training to
therapy.
So that's a lot of the visionand I think the value creation
that we see that when you havedata collecting products and
(24:01):
when you can have datacollecting performance, and you
send that real time to thehealthcare provider or the team,
but also use that forsystematic quality improvement
within the system, you reallyget an amazing flywheel.
And so, for people who want tolearn more about that, I would
just uh recommend to Google Safefor Birds and you can go there.
And there are some really greatpresentations also by Professor
(24:24):
Heger Afstall that summarizesthis.
Uh and they also reallysystematically use this uh
circular learning approach to toreally drive that quality
improvement initiative.
Deb Tauber (24:34):
Excellent.
So I'm a little curious here.
So you go on vacation toTanzania with your family, and
so instead of saying, okay,okay, folks, we're gonna go on a
safari, you say we're gonna govisit a hospital.
Is it is that what yourvacation is?
Jon Laerdal (24:50):
That was a good question.
Yeah.
Um it was actually my myfather, who is the chairman of
the company, and my mother havebeen celebrating the golden
anniversary.
And so this was a specialbucket list uh kind of
imitation.
And myself with my wife andkids and my sisters and their
families were invited.
And we had two, three days ofsafari, and then we we went to
this hospital, and especially aTorah.
(25:11):
My father has been togetherwith uh my sister working very
closely with this for for about15 years.
I've only seen this thehospital and pictures of it on
slides, and so it was quitemind-boggling to be there.
And again, when you're there,because you can read about these
things when you're there andyou hear and you feel how the
leaders and also the birthattendants are talking about why
they care and why they train.
(25:32):
That was to me, it's hard toarticulate the takeaway there,
but it was something I thinkreally special where if you can
make people train little andoften because they want to and
because they can see and feelthe direct life saving, I think
you can't you can't get anythingbetter.
So I'm really wondering abouthow do we capitalize on those
learnings and how do we makegreat products into that and
really scale that into uhhealthcare worldwide.
Deb Tauber (25:54):
I love it.
Jerrod Jeffries (25:56):
I won't ask you where your next vacation is
going to be, Jon, but uh I'msure it's probably another
hospital somewhere.
Jon Laerdal (26:01):
Stavanger hospital, yeah.
Jerrod Jeffries (26:04):
I want to kind of wrap this up sooner than
later, but I do want to ask uhgoing back to the simulation
side, is one what excites youthe most, but also what message
do you want to really leave withthe simulationists and the
educators around the world?
Jon Laerdal (26:19):
I think what excites me the most is a
combination of a couple ofthings.
It's really capitalizing onwhat technology now enables.
That is absolutelymind-boggling.
And I think putting that incontext of some of the things
we've learned is really thegreat cocktail we can uh we can
come up with.
So if we can get people totrain little and often and
really um have lower cost andhigher impact simulation
(26:41):
systems, both for instructor-ledbut also self-training.
And what excites me is reallytrying to bridge that gap
between training and therapythat we touched on.
So to make that happen in notonly the day of birth setting,
but to make it happen within anytime critical emergencies.
And to train people inpre-service and in-service, I
think is uh is the most excitingopportunity.
(27:03):
More than 30 million people dieevery year.
That's half of the populationthat dies every year.
More than half die from timecritical emergencies.
And we've set the goal to helpsave one million more lives by
2030.
And that Safe for Birds programalone, if scaled well globally,
could help save 200,000 morelives.
So there are examples like thiswhere we know from
(27:23):
evidence-based, if you scale itup, there's an enormous
potential to help save morelives.
So I think to be really greatat technology and business model
innovation and create betterand better products that
capitalizes on the technologiesand drive for impact and
scalability.
And lastly, I think also tomove simulation to be, and this
I know has been a talk in thecommunity for a long, long time.
(27:44):
And I think there's still a lotof more untapped opportunity
and value there, but to go morefrom training into more
healthcare quality improvementand use simulation for, and
there's different terms forthis, translational simulation
or transformative, but to reallyapply it to to test and to
embed and to improve healthcare,everything from the more
traditional training teams andindividual skills, but more
(28:08):
going and just focusing on thesystem and find those latent
safety threats.
That I think is extremelyexciting that simulation can
have an enormous impact to find,uncover, and reduce
systematically uh safety threatsto patients in healthcare.
Was there another question inthere?
Jerrod Jeffries (28:24):
No, that was again a good, pretty solid
answer.
I like that.
Deb Tauber (28:28):
Yeah, we are so grateful to have had you today.
Thank you so much.
Now, in closing, again, I'mgonna ask you what does it feel
like to be Jon Laerdol?
And how would you like to beremembered?
Jon Laerdal (28:41):
That's a big difficult question.
I um professionally I like tobe remembered as somebody who
who uh was good to work with.
And uh and uh helped enable uh,first of all, now towards 2030,
a real impact on helping savelives, and beyond that to scale
(29:03):
simulation and lifesaver'spreparedness significantly
better.
I uh I think there's enormouspotential.
So I'd like to be remembered assomebody who helped drive that
agenda.
And uh personally, of course,as as a good listener and as a
curious person and as a as agood dad and a pretty decent uh
husband, I'd be good.
Deb Tauber (29:24):
Great, great.
Now, if our listeners want toget a hold of the company, where
should they go if they want tosupport some of these
initiatives or learn more aboutthem?
Jon Laerdal (29:33):
You can just go to Lairdel.com or you can Google uh
WhatMeal Lives.
And we're uh in more than 30countries with colleagues and
with our our offices, or you canjust find me on LinkedIn or
send me an email on john.laerdalat Laerdal.com.
I'll do my best to uh torespond quickly to that.
So yeah, we're totallyapproachable.
(29:53):
So happy to uh to meet up withpeople.
Deb Tauber (29:56):
Yes, I've been inspired by your humbleness
during this interview, and Ithank You so much.
unknown (30:01):
Thank you.
Jon Laerdal (30:01):
Likewise, thanks again for the invitation.
Deb Tauber (30:03):
Yeah.
Jared, do you have anything?
Jerrod Jeffries (30:06):
No, it's it's great to hear.
You know, I think Lairdal isseen, you know, at these
conferences, especially withmost of our listeners being on
the simulation side, butLairdol's seen as you know the
platinum premiere, whatever typeof sponsor, uh, in these large
halls around different differentvenues, and to see where you
(30:28):
started versus you know thegrowth of the company and then
also that of even where thefuture holds.
I mean, Tanzania and in lowresource settings, I don't want
to say dominated, but they had agood share of our time here.
And and I think that's you'relooking forward, you're not just
uh resting on your loins andsaying, okay, well, we did this.
(30:48):
Great job.
It's more of I I think theinnovativeness and what's next
and how do you continue tosupport and help has been it's
great to see.
And I think that can be sharedin the larger setting within
this industry.
And so thank you for your time.
Likewise, it was a pleasure.
Deb Tauber (31:06):
Thank you and happy simulating.
Disclaimer/ SIM vs/ Intr (31:11):
Thanks to SimVS again for sponsoring
this week's episode.
To learn more about their newIV infusion pump simulators,
check out www.simvs.com.
Thanks for joining us here atthe Sim Cafe.
(31:33):
We hope you enjoyed.
Visit us at www.innovativesimsolutions.com.
And be sure to hit that likeand subscribe button so you
never miss an episode.
Innovative Sim Solutions isyour one stop shop for your
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