November 6, 2024 • 39 mins
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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Diclaimer/ SimVS/ 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
Innovative Sim Solutions or oursponsors.
Thanks to SimVS for sponsoringthis week's episode.
The new SimVS iV Infusion PumpSimulator is the first to market
(00:21):
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Simvs IV helps students developthe confidence needed in a safe
(00:43):
environment before facing thechallenges of modern health care
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To learn more, visit www.
simvscom.
Welcome to the Sim Cafe, apodcast produced by the team at
Innovative Sim Solutions, editedby Shelly Houser.
(01:03):
Join our host, Deb Tauber, andco-host, Jerrod Jeffries, as
they sit down with experts fromacross the globe to reimagine
clinical education and the useof simulation.
rr So pour yourself a cup ofrelaxation, sit back, tune in
(01:24):
and learn something new from TheSim Cafe.
Deb Tauber (01:34):
Welcome to another episode of The Sim Cafe.
Today we are so fortunate tohave the folks from Elevate
Healthcare.
Welcome Jared, welcome Melissa,welcome Brian, welcome Tim.
So thank you so much forjoining us, and with that, why
(01:56):
don't Melissa?
Melissa Lowther (01:56):
why don't you introduce yourself to our guests
?
Sure, my name is Melissa Loher.
I am a solution salesconsultant for Learning Space at
Elevate Healthcare, and I amone of the fellows for the
Society for Simulation inHealthcare.
Deb Tauber (02:07):
Congratulations.
Thank you, Brian.
You want to go ahead?
Brian Truesdale (02:11):
Sure, so I'm Brian Truesdale.
I'm CEO and President ofElevate Healthcare, just joined
the company earlier this year,in May, and excited to be here
with all of you to talk aboutthe exciting things happening at
Elevate.
Deb Tauber (02:23):
Thank you.
Thank you, Tim, you want to goahead?
Tim Whitaker (02:26):
Sure Thanks.
I'm Tim Whitaker.
I'm the product manager forpatient simulation for Elevate
Healthcare.
Been in the space for quite awhile right now with the Society
for Simulation and Healthcare,vice chair for the credentialing
for the certifications and afew other councils and such
Thanks.
Deb Tauber (02:43):
Thank you.
Now, those in the audience thatmay not be familiar with
Elevate, who is ElevateHealthcare?
Brian Truesdale (02:50):
Elevate is the former CAE Healthcare, the
former healthcare simulationbusiness within CAE, which is a
larger publicly traded Canadiancompany that did simulation in
aerospace and defense, and theybuilt a small platform compared
to their larger business in thehealthcare space.
So we are essentially a newthing unto ourselves.
We were purchased earlier thisyear by Madison Industries from
(03:14):
CAE.
That was back in February of2024.
And so we've set up a kind ofstandalone company.
We're not, although we're ownedby Madison, we are operating
more like an independentbusiness, and so we're excited
to have that opportunity to kindof create something a bit new
from something that's beenaround for a while.
Jerrod Jefrries (03:34):
Thanks again for being here.
I know maybe I'm just speakingfor myself, but extremely
excited to talk to you all.
I think that historicallythere's been you know it was
first Medi, then it moved intoCAE and now we're seeing what a
new chapter turning with whatElevate Healthcare is going to
go.
But I think even before then iswho is Madison?
And two is like how do youdiffer from the previous
ownership with CAE or even Medi,or what's the new outlook on
(03:56):
that?
Brian Truesdale (03:57):
Yeah, so Madison Industries is a large
corporation, privately held,based in Chicago, and it started
out as a private equity firmjust much like any other private
equity firm.
But about 10 years ago, Ibelieve, we made a strategic
shift away from traditionalbuying and maybe spinning off or
(04:17):
selling off assets as theyimproved them.
Larry Geese, our president, ceoof Madison, made a decision.
He was going to look at theworld a little bit differently
through a mission purpose lensand look at businesses that
really fit a particular missionwhich we're all compelled by and
I think it really resonateswith Elevate and the industry as
(04:39):
a whole, and that mission is tomake the world safer, healthier
and more productive and we talkabout that in every business
within Madison.
It's that our mission as acompany broadly of I believe we
have over 60 different companieswithin Madison and you know
each of those companies in theirown way makes the world safer,
healthier and more productive.
I think Elevate, and being partof this industry, we actually
(05:00):
get the privilege of checkingall three of those boxes.
You know we see obviouslytrying to make patient safety
improvements, make the worldhealthier and obviously helping
make both SimCenter operators,educators, students more
productive and obviously peopleeven out in practice.
So Madison in and of itself isa big, big business with you
know, we've got five bigplatforms and the platform where
(05:22):
Elevate is housed is themedical platform and we have
other sister companies thatserve both medical devices,
mostly in the laboratoryenvironment, but also disposable
medical supplies.
So we're in a little bit of anew platform within that space.
But Madison is really, reallyexcited by what opportunities
exist in simulation and so we'redifferent, I think, in the
(05:45):
respect that we have a focusreally truly about healthcare in
our business.
We're not part of again alarger simulation business
that's looking at aerospace andgovernment contracts and things
like that.
We're really trying to servethis particular space in
healthcare education and so ourmission is really singularly
that and that's what we'refocused on.
Jerrod Jefrries (06:07):
So thank you for that B .
Just to distill it down to acouple sentences, you guys.
So Madison Industriestraditionally looks at
healthcare companies.
They saw a good opportunitywith what was formerly CAE
Healthcare and they believe thatthey can help create the
healthcare simulation spacesafer, healthier and more
productive.
That they can help create thehealthcare simulation space
safer, healthier and moreproductive yes, exactly.
Brian Truesdale (06:30):
Yeah, I think what we see in the space is an
opportunity to bring some of theoperating frameworks that
Madison uses.
So, on top of that, we want tohave that mission of making the
world safer, healthier, moreproductive.
We also look at the worldthrough a lens of a fanatical
focus on the customer, andthat's one of our big tenets is
to make sure that we're alwaysfocused on customer need and
(06:51):
that job the customer needs toachieve and working our
innovation portfolio backwardfrom that, as well as creating
an environment where people loveto work and building that
around again.
That mission and as you said, Ithink, earlier, as we were just
getting introduced, thisindustry, probably more than any
other than I've been in, isreally passionate about what we
(07:13):
do, right, I mean, and the folks, even at Elevate that I've had
the privilege to start to get toknow and work with, I mean the
passion just kind of in yourface, which is great it is.
There's a ton of just love forwhat this business does and what
people do in their roles tohelp make healthcare education
better, and so I think it's anawesome mission and it fits,
(07:35):
like I said, the Madisonoverarching mission really well,
and so I think Madison alsolooked at it through that lens.
Does it fit our mission?
And that's, you know, one ofthe other filters that's
critical.
There are tons of healthcarebusinesses out there and other
operations that Madison could goinvest in, but if they don't
check those boxes, it's notsomething that they're going to
pull in as part of the Madisonfamily or Madison ecosystem, if
(07:57):
you like to call it.
Deb Tauber (07:59):
Thank you.
Now I know all of our listenersare pretty curious about this.
You renamed the company ElevateHealthcare after the purchase.
What about the company is goingto stay the same and what is
going to change?
Melissa Lowther (08:13):
Sure, I think what's going to stay the same.
Brian Truesdale (08:15):
You know, obviously we have a breadth of
portfolio that you know tries toserve many aspects of
simulation, whether it's in theAV debriefing or it's in the
physical patient simulators oreven digital simulation tools.
Our goal is to be a fullservice solution provider for
simulation and to do it reallywell, and I think this business
(08:38):
has done that for a long time interms of trying to continuously
build up what we can bring toour customers.
I think beyond that, I thinkwhat stays the same is all of
that.
But what changes a bit is, Ithink, again coming back to this
focus that we have and we use aprinciple called 80-20, which
is an operating principle weemploy one.
(08:58):
I've had used in my entirecareer, and what's amazing about
it is, when you create thishyper-focus on what the customer
needs, you get really greatinnovation out of it and you get
really precise the productsthat basically solve very
specific problems and hopefullythe most challenging problems
that your customers encounterevery day.
(09:18):
And so I think what's differentis that that focus on the
customer, that fanatical focuson the customer I mentioned
earlier, is really a driver forus in almost everything we do,
and we always look customerbackwards.
I don't know that I would saythat CEE didn't do that, but I
think we just do it a whole lotmore, and so we're just kind of
hyper sensitive to trying tounderstand what customers need
(09:41):
and then trying to figure outhow do we solve those problems
in a very unique way.
Jerrod Jefrries (09:46):
Can I dig a little more into that too?
When you were mentioning thefocus on the customer and the
80-20, do you have anyforeshadowing of what that 80%
would be, of what users orElevate customers or even
potential new customers could belooking at for the future?
Brian Truesdale (10:03):
Yeah, I think the customers I've spoken with
over know four or five monthsI've been here.
I think I've heard a consistentthread throughout those
conversations, which is, youknow, the struggle to have the
capacity needed to bring morenurses and doctors, you know, to
the market, so to speak.
You know, we all know there'snot enough practitioners out
(10:24):
there to help solve the problemsthat we have in the healthcare
space, and we also don't haveenough educators, and then, on
top of that, we're strugglingwith just enough STEM center
technicians and operators aswell.
So the industry has thischallenge of kind of workforce
availability and I think that'sthe threat I've heard
consistently from our customers.
So, as we think about thoseproblems, I see that as one of
(10:45):
the 80, the few problems thathave the most impact on the
industry that we can help solve,and so many of our product
innovations that you'll beseeing coming forward are really
aimed at how do we improvecapacity for our customers so
that you can actually serve morestudents or have more time to
spend with students doing thethings you love to do, rather
(11:07):
than doing maybe a lot of backoffice activities?
So I think that's something inmy mind, just from what I've
heard from customers directly.
You know they're always sayingyou know, I just don't have
enough educators, or I can't getenough students through my
program, or we want to addstudents but we just don't have
the capacity.
And I think our job is to helpopen up that capacity and help
(11:29):
them use their time in the waythey'd love to use their time,
which is the spending time withthe students teaching.
Jerrod Jefrries (11:35):
And I've heard it a lot too, so I'm glad we're
hearing similar stories.
Brian Truesdale (11:40):
Yeah, it's a great problem to solve, for I
think even just my own careerexperience been through other
industries that have had thissame challenge, and so I think
that's one of the things I'mexcited about, because I know
there are ways that this can besolved, and I think we have a
lot of great foundationalproducts already and we just
need to continue to advance themand build on our portfolio with
some new innovation.
Deb Tauber (12:01):
Brian, you've really got an interesting background
and you're coming into thisfield with some very fresh eyes.
So I'm curious about how youfelt when you started to see the
simulators and what you werethinking when you got introduced
to this technology and thisscience.
Brian Truesdale (12:16):
Yeah, first you're kind of looking at like
wow, I didn't even know any ofthis existed.
My first few times, just seeingeven the products we have here,
I was like I just didn'timagine it was that
sophisticated.
So and then as you start to goout again, seeing customers at
their locations and then theircenters, it's remarkable the
amount of technology that'sengaged in this whole process
(12:37):
and I think also thethoughtfulness of trying to
create that fidelity or thatexperience that's immersive.
And I was with a customeractually last week and they
talked about they were using oneof our birthing simulators and
they said every group ofstudents, cohort of nursing
students that comes through,there's usually a couple of
students that cry when thebaby's born out of the simulator
(12:58):
and you're like wow, I meanthat must be a really immersive
experience if it evokes thatkind of emotion out of a student
.
So they also had a couple thatfaint every so often.
So it's kind of like you know,but if people really get engaged
in it in that way, I mean it'sremarkable that this technology
can actually basically connectat that level of emotion.
(13:20):
I think it is remarkable.
So again, it's something as wetalk about our mission to make
the world safer, healthier, moreproductive.
You know, as I've talked toother people, that I know that
don't know anything about theindustry, no matter what.
When you start sharing thestories of what this technology
and what these solutions do,people are always intrigued that
(13:41):
you know there's such a thingthat exists, that helps teach
our doctors and nurses andclinicians how to how to do
their jobs really well when itmatters certainly yeah and I
guess, tim, you and Melissa haveboth seen a lot of changes
throughout the years as wellwith your time being in, also
with SSH, and you know thechanges that CAE and now Elevate
(14:03):
has been coming to.
Jerrod Jefrries (14:04):
Would you want to touch on any of those, like
Melissa?
Melissa Lowther (14:07):
yeah, there have been a lot of changes.
So I've been in the industryfor almost 12 years.
Tim's got a lot more years onme as far as that.
So, yeah, the changes have beenpretty wild.
So, going from, you know, beingin some centers and some of the
early technologies that I wasusing, you know, as things like
(14:34):
our Lucina product but justseeing what she can do now
versus what she did in the earlydays and things like that but
really the innovations that'sthe things that drive me and my
passion for this industry isseeing how much we can do, and
sometimes it's those really,really simple things, but right
(14:58):
now, meeting those challenges issuch an important thing.
I think we all know that thelast few years have certainly
opened a lot of people's eyes asto how understaffed we are
across so many disciplines.
And so, being able to pull allof those in and really make sure
that they're getting thetraining that they need, that
it's high quality training, thatand really make sure that
they're getting the trainingthat they need, that it's high
quality training, that we'remaking sure that we're doing the
(15:20):
absolute best for them aspossible and then making it
easier coming from theoperations side of the house.
Making it easier for people tooperate the products, to do
these things and not spend somuch time in locked up in an
office and spend more time, youknow, doing Sims, whether it's
you know hands-on things,digital things and getting a
(15:40):
whole lot more of that time with, with with our learners, is
just so important.
So, yeah, it's it's been kind ofa wild more than decade to see
how things have changed in ourbest practices and you know
talking about codes of ethicsand things like that.
It's really great to see, likelooking back on that, because it
does give this idea of how muchfurther we could go in the
(16:03):
future.
So I think it just seeing thatremains like this exciting piece
knowing how much we can do inthe future and I think that's
where we're at now is takingthis company as Elevate
Healthcare and realizing that wecan really be pushing those
boundaries really hard andmaking sure we're just doing the
best for everybody.
Jerrod Jefrries (16:23):
Certainly.
Thank you, Melissa and Tim.
What are some of the changesthat you've seen throughout and
then excited for with Elevate?
Tim Whitaker (16:30):
Oh, I've seen a lot.
I've been around for quite along time.
I'm going to date myself, youknow, as one of the first B
model users of an HPS back whenit was all in one car with the
compressors and things like that.
And to echo Melissa, there'sbeen a lot of technology changes
.
I've seen formalized educationoccur for simulationists in the
(16:55):
world right and that's beenimportant.
I mean, I remember you know, wemade simulators do a lot of
different things because people,they didn't have that
experience and now we're seeingall these experienced people.
So one of the big things I'veseen shift is the amount of
technology and the explosion ofthat technology and what we can
(17:17):
do with that.
And then the shift do we needthe technology?
I mean.
So I think one of the todemonstrate what Elevate's doing
and one of the you know andnothing.
You know.
This wasn't bad for CAE, but wewere a small portion of a very
large company.
Now we focus on our future andeveryone else's future out there
(17:38):
and being super close to thecustomer right and doing what
they need.
There's a lot of thingsfloating around and doesn't
really have an educationaloutcome.
So a lot of shiny things and soat the end of the day, we want
to get things done.
One glaring thing that Iremember and it was when Hall
Day was still publishing the SimMagazine there was an op-ed in
(17:58):
it that said engineering iscompletely out of touch with the
end user.
That stuck in my head and oneof the things I think that we
can shift to and what elevatesbringing to us is that fanatical
focus on the customer.
We are literally doing tons ofVOC.
We know from studies peoplearen't doing using this and
doing this.
Doing this, we can zero in onwhere those gaps are at and
(18:22):
serve the industry to meet thesethroughput needs, these
efficiency needs.
I head out of the computer fromrunning a simulator where I can
actually look up and see what'sgoing 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 lotof places out there that the
faculty, the educator and theops specialist are all one
(18:46):
person yeah we need to be ableto help them.
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 thoseXs and to include cost right.
So I think that's one of thegreat things that the fanatical
(19:08):
focus and looking at where thosegaps are.
That elevates broad.
That was a big change and yes,I've been through a lot of the
different changes through thetime, from starting with METI
and then working my way to thispoint.
So I think if we focus on whatis meeting the outcomes to
(19:29):
educate clinicians, establishcompetency and put a safe
practitioner on the road, that'swhere the key is for all the
simulation industry.
Jerrod Jefrries (19:38):
Wonderful, yeah , and it seems, it seems like to
me.
It's like with the shift andmaybe I'm, you know, it's too
macro, but the shift from CAE toElevate might be.
With CAE, you were a littlefish in a big pond.
Maybe there wasn't resourceallocation, or maybe it was just
overlooked within the suchniche market of CAE's overall
pie, where now you're a big fishin a little pond where it's
(20:00):
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 theworld.
Tim Whitaker (20:09):
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 businessstandpoint, aviation simulation
was the a hundred percent or the98% for them Right, and we were
the other percentage and thisallows us to put 100% at the
(20:32):
mission and do it that way, andso it was.
It wasn't a bad thing under CAEI don't want to say that, but
it's like any other business.
We can put our focus and makeit our own right at this point.
Great.
Deb Tauber (20:48):
Thanks.
You know you talked about the80-20 rule and what do you
believe are the biggestchallenges in healthcare
simulation and healthcareindustry and how can you apply?
Are the biggest challenges inhealthcare simulation and
healthcare industry and how canyou apply that to?
You know, make some changes.
Brian Truesdale (21:00):
Yeah, so we talked earlier about just
there's this whole workforceavailability problem.
I think one of the things thatwe've talked about internally is
that getting close to thecustomer means you start to
actually learn what the 80-20 is, and so maybe for your audience
, just to explain that rule alittle bit, what we believe is
that there are in 80-20, thatthere's a few inputs that
(21:21):
generate the most output or havethe most impact, and in the
world of business, we sometimestalk about it as 20% of my
customers generate 80% of myrevenues or 80% of my profits.
My products are the same thing,and so it's making sure that
we're focusing on the few thingsthat really have the most not
only impact on our business, butimpact on the industry, and so
(21:42):
I'm a strong advocate of using80-20 almost everywhere.
I do it probably to a fault,where I go home, and I talk
about it to my wife too oftenabout.
You know, this is where weshould spend our time, because
it's the 80 is the mostimportant, but when we talk
about it in our business, wealso want to talk about what is
the big problem that needs to besolved, and then how do we get
(22:03):
close to it and reallyunderstand it and so that we can
actually tailor or craft theright product or the right
solution to that need.
And, as Tim said, we're doing aton of EOC, we do focus groups,
we do a lot of market researchto really understand that well,
before we start going down thetrack of just trying to develop
a product for the sake ofdeveloping a product.
(22:24):
I think one of the things thatyou see in any industry and I
know it's here, I know it's inall the industries I've ever
been in any company can beguilty of saying we just need to
get another product out there.
We just need to get anotherproduct out there, we just need
to get another bell or whistleon our product.
And I think what I'm trying tohelp our teams here do is
realize that not every bell andwhistle is all that valuable and
(22:45):
all that important to ourcustomers.
It's far more important tounderstand what is really
important and then to make surewe get those boxes checked,
rather than saying, oh look, Ihave a thousand features in my
simulator and obviously Tim, yousaid it well you know the
SimCenter operator, the educator, the technician they might all
be the same person.
The more complex we make theproduct the harder, we're
(23:08):
actually making their job, andso by focusing on those few
things that really matter tothem and getting that job done
and hopefully maybe evenautomating some of the stuff
that isn't so important butneeds to be done, is a way that
we apply 80-20 kind of in ourworld and how we see the way we
can help the industry.
using 80-20 in many respects Isto say there are jobs that are
(23:30):
really important for thateducator or some operator or
technician.
And then there's things thatare not so important in their
world, what's their 80 andwhat's their 20.
And so if we can help take overthat 20 and off their plate by
putting it into, let's say, asoftware package like learning
space, and automate some ofthose things they have more time
to go spend with, with you know, the things that really matter
(23:53):
and really have an impact ongreat clinicians and experiences
for those students.
Jerrod Jefrries (23:59):
Yeah, no, well said, and I love that.
Every industry is special I putthat in air quotes since we're
a podcast here but there issimilar principles that you can
apply to every industry and Ithink it's well said, brian of
people just keep putting out anew feature, functionality,
which who knows how much costthat consumes, but that aside,
(24:19):
the customer doesn't see that.
Or the simulationist, but ofcourse that cost has to go
somewhere and you can only takeso many hits before something
really needs to come.
So I love that simplicity andthe focus on the safer,
healthier, more productiveoutcomes, and you might have
mentioned some of it, but whenit came to I mean, we even go
with learning space, for example, since you mentioned it, Brian,
(24:41):
but what is Elevate doing toaddress these specific
challenges of focusing on the 80versus 20?
I heard voice of customer, Iheard some market research, but
is there any more specifics youcan give us?
Brian Truesdale (24:52):
Yeah, sure.
So we actually just hosted awebinar the other day for some
of our big users of LearningSpace to try and update them on
kind of the roadmap ahead forLearning Space and where we're
going.
I think, again, some of theareas where we see opportunity
is to hopefully take away someof that, call it, back office
work that needs to be done andautomating it or making it much
(25:13):
simpler to accomplish it.
And so, as an example, you know, we're bringing AI into that
platform so that it can do a lotof the kind of thought process
behind, whether it's schedulingor even some evaluations, and
kind of call it augmenting whatthe educator does, so that they
don't have to kind of doeverything.
But we're really kind ofbringing the most important work
(25:35):
right out to the front andmoving a lot of the other work
to the back, where all that canget done, whether it's through
AI or just much more capablesoftware platforms.
That's one area.
I think another area is to againmake our product more flexible
and usable, and so we've got alot of new physical simulator
products coming out here in thenext year.
We'll be showing some at IMSH.
(25:57):
We showed some last year interms of modular mannequins and
things like that.
So we have the opportunity tomake it easy for customers to
configure a product in a waythat's best for their particular
lesson or whatever they'retrying to accomplish with their
students, accomplish with theirstudents.
Increasing the ability to change, diversity of those mannequins
(26:18):
and the kind of things that theycan give as an experience we
think is an opportunity to helpmake that again, that experience
far more tangible and, you know, bringing that fidelity to life
in such that somebody would crywhen something happens in one
of these simulators.
You know, sadly I'm trying toget more people to cry, I guess.
But I think when you can getthat kind of visceral emotion
(26:38):
from someone in that experience,I think you started to kind of
cross that barrier where they'rereally really deeply learning
about what it's going to be likewhen they have to do it in real
life.
It's obviously not exactly thesame, but if you can have that
emotional reaction, I thinkyou're starting to get close to
that edge of making it realenough.
Deb Tauber (26:58):
Yeah, brian, and that's part of what keeps the
simulationists passionate aboutthis field.
I've been in many simulationswhere learners have evoked the
emotions of full-blown tears.
It just really can strike thechord.
Brian Truesdale (27:16):
It just really can strike the chord.
Yeah, I can't say I've ever hadother products that you know
had that kind of emotionalimpact on a student or a
customer or user of a product.
But I would say it's amazingand it's obviously honestly an
honor to be able to be part ofthat and to be in that mission,
in that moment of a student'scareer where they're going to
remember that.
I can just give you a briefstory about this that I was in
(27:39):
the emergency room a couple ofmonths ago with my mother and I
was talking with the nurse thatwas there at the time and she
asked what I did and I told herI was with Elevate and I
explained what we did and shesaid, oh, you mean Apollo and
Juno and you know, ChristinaSheila knew them.
And she said they were like myfamily during nursing school and
(28:01):
she says you don't know howwell I know all of them and I
was like you know them betterthan I do.
She literally listed everysingle one of the products that
we made and I was, I was amazedat again, how connected she felt
to our products.
And it's just again.
It's an amazing honor to havethat kind of impact on a person
and their career and then youknow how inspired they become to
(28:21):
go do the work they do, whichis amazing work every day, so
again it's an amazingopportunity to create those
experiences for people.
Jerrod Jefrries (28:30):
Yeah, and to that point, Brian, I mean,
there's students that are spentso much time with these because
because it's not, you know, backto some of what Tim was saying
too is it's not always thatthey're in a high fidelity
simulator or simulation, butthey're always talking or doing
something with the simulatoritself.
Again, back to some of the costdiscussion we've had too is
(28:51):
like you don't always want tohave a technician or operator,
like prepare everything, but youstill need to see some sort of
fringe or or outside skill sets.
Uh, so they really get close tothem.
They really get close to them Iwas floored.
Brian Truesdale (29:04):
I was floored when she could kind of again
list them all off and she gaveme four or five stories of
different simulations that areliterally were vivid to her and
she can remember exactly whathappened and how she reacted.
So to me that's the kind ofreward that we get for what we
do, when you can see thatreflected back to you in just
their everyday work.
Deb Tauber (29:25):
Now, how do you feel that emerging technologies like
AI and spatial computing aregoing to impact simulation over
the next several years?
What are you guys' thoughts onthat?
Brian Truesdale (29:35):
Yeah, I mean I can start.
Certainly Tim and Melissa willhave more probably experiential
ways to share what they think.
But I think you know what I seeagain coming from other
industries and just in general,seeing what's emerging in both
the AI and then spatialcomputing, there's so much
opportunity to leverage thattechnology.
Now, again, leveraging for thesake of leveraging it or
(29:57):
throwing into the product is tome not the way forward.
So I think we have to pick ourspots and leverage them to do
really valuable work, ratherthan just saying, oh, I've got
an AI thing, because I think ifyou 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
(30:20):
educators to do what they loveto do to help make the students'
experience more impactful.
And then I think you've gotother technologies that now they
become more commercially viable, like, let's call it,
autonomous vehicles.
You think that I've come fromthe automotive world.
You know autonomous vehiclescan process images at a very,
very high rate of speed.
You know they're detectingwhether or not a pet
(30:41):
pedestrian's in the street or ananimal's in the road or
whatever, and guiding thatvehicle.
So you can imagine thosetechnologies that they become
more ubiquitous in otherindustries, become much more
available and less expensive tointegrate, even things like our,
our simulation products.
So, whether it's virtualreality or augmented reality or
(31:02):
ai or whatever, I think, asthose technologies get mass
consumed and adopted by a lot ofother date, you know daily
things that we use in our lives.
They become much more portableand integratable, so to speak,
into the products that wedeliver, which I lives.
They become much more portableand and integratable, so to
speak, into the products that wedeliver, which I think, it's
going to be amazing obviously,when you can mix and we have a
few products that do this todaythat mix both the tangible, you
(31:25):
know, physical simulator withaugmented reality.
You've now, you know, changedthat whole experience to be kind
of multi-dimensional, where nowI'm not just looking at, you
know, the outside of themannequin, where I can now look
inside the mannequin using an ARheadset.
And that helps again thatlearning experience where I can
visualize and I think we all, Ithink, can appreciate that being
(31:49):
able to visualize what you'redoing, and especially when you
can't really see what'shappening when you're doing,
let's say, a procedure on apatient, but you could visualize
what it's kind of looking likeon the inside as you're doing it
, whether that's a sonogram or asimple task like putting an IV
in an arm, you get at least abetter understanding of how you
are impacting your patients andhow you're solving their
(32:10):
problems.
So I think it was an immenseopportunity going forward.
I think probably the biggestchallenge is to figure out
what's the right use of it andagain, that I would say is kind
of independent of industry.
We can always get sucked into.
We're going to, you know, clickthe latest thing onto our
product and that's going to justsolve everybody's problems.
I think again listening to thecustomer, that fanatical focus
(32:33):
on the customer figuring out howdo I apply AI or how do I bring
virtual reality into this spacein a very meaningful way,
rather than just kind ofthrowing a bunch of stuff at
customers.
And so that's our approach isthat the technology has to be
intentionally placed rather thanjust kind of peanut butter
spread over everything.
Deb Tauber (32:55):
Exactly Deliberate about what is being done in the
field.
Yeah, I see you shaking yourhead there.
What do you want to?
Melissa Lowther (33:01):
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 dowith it.
I know there's a lot of AIscare at the same time, so
luckily we're very, veryintentional about it.
But one of the things that Brianis saying is we're not just
like, hey, this is newtechnology, let's use it.
(33:21):
It's hey, how can we use it toget the best outcomes we can get
from our learners, whoever theyare, but also how can we take
it and use it to removecognitive load off of our
operations folks and use it toremove cognitive load off of our
operations folks, our faculty,so that they can be much deeper
in you know the work that theyneed to be in with the learners
(33:43):
instead of some of the otherthings.
So really using it in that waybecause there's so much
cognitive load on the folks onthe you know operations team,
whether it's you know thespecialist, on the operations
team, whether it's thespecialist or the faculty so in
any way that we can use it in adual purpose to benefit the
learners and also benefit theSIMS staff is huge and I think
(34:05):
that's one of the things is tomake sure that, as Brian said,
it's very intentional to use itthat way, regardless of what
technology it is.
I mean, ai is certainly one ofthem, but really looking at all
technologies that way is a hugebenefit to make sure that we're
using it with a specific purposein mind and using it to its
best advantage.
Deb Tauber (34:30):
Well, thank you so much, and do you guys have any
closing thoughts that you wantto share with our listeners?
Brian Truesdale (34:37):
Sure, I think, again, we're excited as Elevate
to be part of the mission ofthis industry and again having
those emotional connections withour customers, and we have a
ton of opportunity to improvewhat we do every day.
And I think we actually kind ofhave an internal mantra now
that we've adopted I think wecall it elevate every day which
(34:57):
is you know, some people say youknow you should get just 1%
better every day, and that's ourgoal is to just continue to
push that envelope consistently,and you know it doesn't need to
be massive changes but it doesneed to be a consistent drumbeat
of improving outcomes for ourcustomers and their patients.
And so, again, we have a ton ofopportunities to go establish
(35:20):
our brand and our name.
But we've been here for a whileand we have a ton of great
people like Melissa and Tim andthe entire team that's behind us
doing all these great thingsevery day.
But our goal is to really helpmove the industry forward just
that little bit every day andelevate the industry.
And that's why we picked thename.
The name is it's all abouttrying to build, going forward
(35:41):
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 deliveron that desire to improve a
patient outcome.
So thank you again for invitingus.
It's great to talk.
Thank you.
Tim Whitaker (35:57):
Oh, I just appreciate being on and kind of
celebrating the exciting futurefor us here at Elevate and for
all of you that will be exposedto all of what we're trying to
do in the industry.
I think it's a new world, a newapproach that's coming in the
future for us and I'm excited tobe part of it.
(36:20):
So thanks for having us.
Jerrod Jefrries (36:22):
Thank you, thank you for the time.
Deb Tauber (36:26):
Melissa, anything you want to conclude with?
Melissa Lowther (36:29):
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 likethere's a we're sort of at this
like critical mass of likemomentum with healthcare
simulation and there's just somany facets of wonderful things
(36:50):
happening.
So it's really wonderful to beable to come and chat with you
all today and share about thatand hopefully, you know, in the
future we'll have some moreDefinitely.
You know for the listeners thatyou know, but keep an ear out
for what's happening withElevate Healthcare.
There's going to be some reallyexciting things at IMSH and in
the future.
So it's going to be a lot ofreally fun stuff is going to be
(37:16):
a lot of really fun stuff.
Deb Tauber (37:16):
Thank you, thank you Now.
If our listeners do want to geta hold of you now, because it's
a new, it's a whole new.
You know, where do you get ahold of the old CAE?
Where do you get a hold ofElevate?
How do you get a hold of yourrep?
What?
How can you help them?
How can we help them?
Brian Truesdale (37:27):
Sure.
So you know, certainly our newwebsite, Elevate.
net.
n healthcare.
net, is one way.
Obviously, there's again thereps that we've had that have
been out in the industry arestill out there, and we also
have some distributors as well.
So we definitely want you toreach out, but the website is
probably the easiest way toconnect through, and then we
obviously have LinkedIn pagesand all those great social media
(37:48):
points of contact.
So please do reach out, asMelissa suggested.
We'd love to hear more.
Again.
That fanatical focus on thecustomer is always out in front
of us to try and make sure thatwe reach out and hear where
people are seeing challenges andopportunities for our products
to be improved or just eventhings across just simulation
(38:09):
that need more support and needmore advancement.
So, yeah, we love to hear fromour customers and get more
feedback.
Like I said, we love to hearfrom our customers and get more
feedback.
Like I said, we did a quickcall with a lot of our Learning
Space users and got a ton ofgreat ideas and other
opportunities where we can helpthem do their jobs more
effectively.
Deb Tauber (38:28):
Thank you Well with that happy simulating.
Diclaimer/ SimVS/ Intro (38:40):
Thanks to SimVS again for sponsoring
this week's episode.
Happy simulating.
Thanks for joining us here atThe Sim Cafe.
We hope you enjoyed.
Visit us at www.
(39:03):
i.
nnovativesimsolutions.
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
simulation needs A turnkeysolution.
The views and opinions expressed in
this program are those of thespeakers and do not necessarily
reflect the opinions orpositions of anyone at
Innovative Sim Solutions or oursponsors.
Thanks to SimVS for sponsoringthis week's episode.
The new SimVS iV Infusion PumpSimulator is the first to market
(00:21):
in this critical learning area,with great realism and advanced
features like simulation, metaorders, gamified med arrows and
more.
Simvs IV significantly reducesthe burden for training proper
IV administration when comparedto refurbished pumps.
Simvs IV helps students developthe confidence needed in a safe
(00:43):
environment before facing thechallenges of modern health care
.
To learn more, visit www.
simvscom.
Welcome to the Sim Cafe, apodcast produced by the team at
Innovative Sim Solutions, editedby Shelly Houser.
(01:03):
Join our host, Deb Tauber, andco-host, Jerrod Jeffries, as
they sit down with experts fromacross the globe to reimagine
clinical education and the useof simulation.
rr So pour yourself a cup ofrelaxation, sit back, tune in
(01:24):
and learn something new from TheSim Cafe.
Deb Tauber (01:34):
Welcome to another episode of The Sim Cafe.
Today we are so fortunate tohave the folks from Elevate
Healthcare.
Welcome Jared, welcome Melissa,welcome Brian, welcome Tim.
So thank you so much forjoining us, and with that, why
(01:56):
don't Melissa?
Melissa Lowther (01:56):
why don't you introduce yourself to our guests
?
Sure, my name is Melissa Loher.
I am a solution salesconsultant for Learning Space at
Elevate Healthcare, and I amone of the fellows for the
Society for Simulation inHealthcare.
Deb Tauber (02:07):
Congratulations.
Thank you, Brian.
You want to go ahead?
Brian Truesdale (02:11):
Sure, so I'm Brian Truesdale.
I'm CEO and President ofElevate Healthcare, just joined
the company earlier this year,in May, and excited to be here
with all of you to talk aboutthe exciting things happening at
Elevate.
Deb Tauber (02:23):
Thank you.
Thank you, Tim, you want to goahead?
Tim Whitaker (02:26):
Sure Thanks.
I'm Tim Whitaker.
I'm the product manager forpatient simulation for Elevate
Healthcare.
Been in the space for quite awhile right now with the Society
for Simulation and Healthcare,vice chair for the credentialing
for the certifications and afew other councils and such
Thanks.
Deb Tauber (02:43):
Thank you.
Now, those in the audience thatmay not be familiar with
Elevate, who is ElevateHealthcare?
Brian Truesdale (02:50):
Elevate is the former CAE Healthcare, the
former healthcare simulationbusiness within CAE, which is a
larger publicly traded Canadiancompany that did simulation in
aerospace and defense, and theybuilt a small platform compared
to their larger business in thehealthcare space.
So we are essentially a newthing unto ourselves.
We were purchased earlier thisyear by Madison Industries from
(03:14):
CAE.
That was back in February of2024.
And so we've set up a kind ofstandalone company.
We're not, although we're ownedby Madison, we are operating
more like an independentbusiness, and so we're excited
to have that opportunity to kindof create something a bit new
from something that's beenaround for a while.
Jerrod Jefrries (03:34):
Thanks again for being here.
I know maybe I'm just speakingfor myself, but extremely
excited to talk to you all.
I think that historicallythere's been you know it was
first Medi, then it moved intoCAE and now we're seeing what a
new chapter turning with whatElevate Healthcare is going to
go.
But I think even before then iswho is Madison?
And two is like how do youdiffer from the previous
ownership with CAE or even Medi,or what's the new outlook on
(03:56):
that?
Brian Truesdale (03:57):
Yeah, so Madison Industries is a large
corporation, privately held,based in Chicago, and it started
out as a private equity firmjust much like any other private
equity firm.
But about 10 years ago, Ibelieve, we made a strategic
shift away from traditionalbuying and maybe spinning off or
(04:17):
selling off assets as theyimproved them.
Larry Geese, our president, ceoof Madison, made a decision.
He was going to look at theworld a little bit differently
through a mission purpose lensand look at businesses that
really fit a particular missionwhich we're all compelled by and
I think it really resonateswith Elevate and the industry as
(04:39):
a whole, and that mission is tomake the world safer, healthier
and more productive and we talkabout that in every business
within Madison.
It's that our mission as acompany broadly of I believe we
have over 60 different companieswithin Madison and you know
each of those companies in theirown way makes the world safer,
healthier and more productive.
I think Elevate, and being partof this industry, we actually
(05:00):
get the privilege of checkingall three of those boxes.
You know we see obviouslytrying to make patient safety
improvements, make the worldhealthier and obviously helping
make both SimCenter operators,educators, students more
productive and obviously peopleeven out in practice.
So Madison in and of itself isa big, big business with you
know, we've got five bigplatforms and the platform where
(05:22):
Elevate is housed is themedical platform and we have
other sister companies thatserve both medical devices,
mostly in the laboratoryenvironment, but also disposable
medical supplies.
So we're in a little bit of anew platform within that space.
But Madison is really, reallyexcited by what opportunities
exist in simulation and so we'redifferent, I think, in the
(05:45):
respect that we have a focusreally truly about healthcare in
our business.
We're not part of again alarger simulation business
that's looking at aerospace andgovernment contracts and things
like that.
We're really trying to servethis particular space in
healthcare education and so ourmission is really singularly
that and that's what we'refocused on.
Jerrod Jefrries (06:07):
So thank you for that B .
Just to distill it down to acouple sentences, you guys.
So Madison Industriestraditionally looks at
healthcare companies.
They saw a good opportunitywith what was formerly CAE
Healthcare and they believe thatthey can help create the
healthcare simulation spacesafer, healthier and more
productive.
That they can help create thehealthcare simulation space
safer, healthier and moreproductive yes, exactly.
Brian Truesdale (06:30):
Yeah, I think what we see in the space is an
opportunity to bring some of theoperating frameworks that
Madison uses.
So, on top of that, we want tohave that mission of making the
world safer, healthier, moreproductive.
We also look at the worldthrough a lens of a fanatical
focus on the customer, andthat's one of our big tenets is
to make sure that we're alwaysfocused on customer need and
(06:51):
that job the customer needs toachieve and working our
innovation portfolio backwardfrom that, as well as creating
an environment where people loveto work and building that
around again.
That mission and as you said, Ithink, earlier, as we were just
getting introduced, thisindustry, probably more than any
other than I've been in, isreally passionate about what we
(07:13):
do, right, I mean, and the folks, even at Elevate that I've had
the privilege to start to get toknow and work with, I mean the
passion just kind of in yourface, which is great it is.
There's a ton of just love forwhat this business does and what
people do in their roles tohelp make healthcare education
better, and so I think it's anawesome mission and it fits,
(07:35):
like I said, the Madisonoverarching mission really well,
and so I think Madison alsolooked at it through that lens.
Does it fit our mission?
And that's, you know, one ofthe other filters that's
critical.
There are tons of healthcarebusinesses out there and other
operations that Madison could goinvest in, but if they don't
check those boxes, it's notsomething that they're going to
pull in as part of the Madisonfamily or Madison ecosystem, if
(07:57):
you like to call it.
Deb Tauber (07:59):
Thank you.
Now I know all of our listenersare pretty curious about this.
You renamed the company ElevateHealthcare after the purchase.
What about the company is goingto stay the same and what is
going to change?
Melissa Lowther (08:13):
Sure, I think what's going to stay the same.
Brian Truesdale (08:15):
You know, obviously we have a breadth of
portfolio that you know tries toserve many aspects of
simulation, whether it's in theAV debriefing or it's in the
physical patient simulators oreven digital simulation tools.
Our goal is to be a fullservice solution provider for
simulation and to do it reallywell, and I think this business
(08:38):
has done that for a long time interms of trying to continuously
build up what we can bring toour customers.
I think beyond that, I thinkwhat stays the same is all of
that.
But what changes a bit is, Ithink, again coming back to this
focus that we have and we use aprinciple called 80-20, which
is an operating principle weemploy one.
(08:58):
I've had used in my entirecareer, and what's amazing about
it is, when you create thishyper-focus on what the customer
needs, you get really greatinnovation out of it and you get
really precise the productsthat basically solve very
specific problems and hopefullythe most challenging problems
that your customers encounterevery day.
(09:18):
And so I think what's differentis that that focus on the
customer, that fanatical focuson the customer I mentioned
earlier, is really a driver forus in almost everything we do,
and we always look customerbackwards.
I don't know that I would saythat CEE didn't do that, but I
think we just do it a whole lotmore, and so we're just kind of
hyper sensitive to trying tounderstand what customers need
(09:41):
and then trying to figure outhow do we solve those problems
in a very unique way.
Jerrod Jefrries (09:46):
Can I dig a little more into that too?
When you were mentioning thefocus on the customer and the
80-20, do you have anyforeshadowing of what that 80%
would be, of what users orElevate customers or even
potential new customers could belooking at for the future?
Brian Truesdale (10:03):
Yeah, I think the customers I've spoken with
over know four or five monthsI've been here.
I think I've heard a consistentthread throughout those
conversations, which is, youknow, the struggle to have the
capacity needed to bring morenurses and doctors, you know, to
the market, so to speak.
You know, we all know there'snot enough practitioners out
(10:24):
there to help solve the problemsthat we have in the healthcare
space, and we also don't haveenough educators, and then, on
top of that, we're strugglingwith just enough STEM center
technicians and operators aswell.
So the industry has thischallenge of kind of workforce
availability and I think that'sthe threat I've heard
consistently from our customers.
So, as we think about thoseproblems, I see that as one of
(10:45):
the 80, the few problems thathave the most impact on the
industry that we can help solve,and so many of our product
innovations that you'll beseeing coming forward are really
aimed at how do we improvecapacity for our customers so
that you can actually serve morestudents or have more time to
spend with students doing thethings you love to do, rather
(11:07):
than doing maybe a lot of backoffice activities?
So I think that's something inmy mind, just from what I've
heard from customers directly.
You know they're always sayingyou know, I just don't have
enough educators, or I can't getenough students through my
program, or we want to addstudents but we just don't have
the capacity.
And I think our job is to helpopen up that capacity and help
(11:29):
them use their time in the waythey'd love to use their time,
which is the spending time withthe students teaching.
Jerrod Jefrries (11:35):
And I've heard it a lot too, so I'm glad we're
hearing similar stories.
Brian Truesdale (11:40):
Yeah, it's a great problem to solve, for I
think even just my own careerexperience been through other
industries that have had thissame challenge, and so I think
that's one of the things I'mexcited about, because I know
there are ways that this can besolved, and I think we have a
lot of great foundationalproducts already and we just
need to continue to advance themand build on our portfolio with
some new innovation.
Deb Tauber (12:01):
Brian, you've really got an interesting background
and you're coming into thisfield with some very fresh eyes.
So I'm curious about how youfelt when you started to see the
simulators and what you werethinking when you got introduced
to this technology and thisscience.
Brian Truesdale (12:16):
Yeah, first you're kind of looking at like
wow, I didn't even know any ofthis existed.
My first few times, just seeingeven the products we have here,
I was like I just didn'timagine it was that
sophisticated.
So and then as you start to goout again, seeing customers at
their locations and then theircenters, it's remarkable the
amount of technology that'sengaged in this whole process
(12:37):
and I think also thethoughtfulness of trying to
create that fidelity or thatexperience that's immersive.
And I was with a customeractually last week and they
talked about they were using oneof our birthing simulators and
they said every group ofstudents, cohort of nursing
students that comes through,there's usually a couple of
students that cry when thebaby's born out of the simulator
(12:58):
and you're like wow, I meanthat must be a really immersive
experience if it evokes thatkind of emotion out of a student
.
So they also had a couple thatfaint every so often.
So it's kind of like you know,but if people really get engaged
in it in that way, I mean it'sremarkable that this technology
can actually basically connectat that level of emotion.
(13:20):
I think it is remarkable.
So again, it's something as wetalk about our mission to make
the world safer, healthier, moreproductive.
You know, as I've talked toother people, that I know that
don't know anything about theindustry, no matter what.
When you start sharing thestories of what this technology
and what these solutions do,people are always intrigued that
(13:41):
you know there's such a thingthat exists, that helps teach
our doctors and nurses andclinicians how to how to do
their jobs really well when itmatters certainly yeah and I
guess, tim, you and Melissa haveboth seen a lot of changes
throughout the years as wellwith your time being in, also
with SSH, and you know thechanges that CAE and now Elevate
(14:03):
has been coming to.
Jerrod Jefrries (14:04):
Would you want to touch on any of those, like
Melissa?
Melissa Lowther (14:07):
yeah, there have been a lot of changes.
So I've been in the industryfor almost 12 years.
Tim's got a lot more years onme as far as that.
So, yeah, the changes have beenpretty wild.
So, going from, you know, beingin some centers and some of the
early technologies that I wasusing, you know, as things like
(14:34):
our Lucina product but justseeing what she can do now
versus what she did in the earlydays and things like that but
really the innovations that'sthe things that drive me and my
passion for this industry isseeing how much we can do, and
sometimes it's those really,really simple things, but right
(14:58):
now, meeting those challenges issuch an important thing.
I think we all know that thelast few years have certainly
opened a lot of people's eyes asto how understaffed we are
across so many disciplines.
And so, being able to pull allof those in and really make sure
that they're getting thetraining that they need, that
it's high quality training, thatand really make sure that
they're getting the trainingthat they need, that it's high
quality training, that we'remaking sure that we're doing the
(15:20):
absolute best for them aspossible and then making it
easier coming from theoperations side of the house.
Making it easier for people tooperate the products, to do
these things and not spend somuch time in locked up in an
office and spend more time, youknow, doing Sims, whether it's
you know hands-on things,digital things and getting a
(15:40):
whole lot more of that time with, with with our learners, is
just so important.
So, yeah, it's it's been kind ofa wild more than decade to see
how things have changed in ourbest practices and you know
talking about codes of ethicsand things like that.
It's really great to see, likelooking back on that, because it
does give this idea of how muchfurther we could go in the
(16:03):
future.
So I think it just seeing thatremains like this exciting piece
knowing how much we can do inthe future and I think that's
where we're at now is takingthis company as Elevate
Healthcare and realizing that wecan really be pushing those
boundaries really hard andmaking sure we're just doing the
best for everybody.
Jerrod Jefrries (16:23):
Certainly.
Thank you, Melissa and Tim.
What are some of the changesthat you've seen throughout and
then excited for with Elevate?
Tim Whitaker (16:30):
Oh, I've seen a lot.
I've been around for quite along time.
I'm going to date myself, youknow, as one of the first B
model users of an HPS back whenit was all in one car with the
compressors and things like that.
And to echo Melissa, there'sbeen a lot of technology changes
.
I've seen formalized educationoccur for simulationists in the
(16:55):
world right and that's beenimportant.
I mean, I remember you know, wemade simulators do a lot of
different things because people,they didn't have that
experience and now we're seeingall these experienced people.
So one of the big things I'veseen shift is the amount of
technology and the explosion ofthat technology and what we can
(17:17):
do with that.
And then the shift do we needthe technology?
I mean.
So I think one of the todemonstrate what Elevate's doing
and one of the you know andnothing.
You know.
This wasn't bad for CAE, but wewere a small portion of a very
large company.
Now we focus on our future andeveryone else's future out there
(17:38):
and being super close to thecustomer right and doing what
they need.
There's a lot of thingsfloating around and doesn't
really have an educationaloutcome.
So a lot of shiny things and soat the end of the day, we want
to get things done.
One glaring thing that Iremember and it was when Hall
Day was still publishing the SimMagazine there was an op-ed in
(17:58):
it that said engineering iscompletely out of touch with the
end user.
That stuck in my head and oneof the things I think that we
can shift to and what elevatesbringing to us is that fanatical
focus on the customer.
We are literally doing tons ofVOC.
We know from studies peoplearen't doing using this and
doing this.
Doing this, we can zero in onwhere those gaps are at and
(18:22):
serve the industry to meet thesethroughput needs, these
efficiency needs.
I head out of the computer fromrunning a simulator where I can
actually look up and see what'sgoing 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 lotof places out there that the
faculty, the educator and theops specialist are all one
(18:46):
person yeah we need to be ableto help them.
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 thoseXs and to include cost right.
So I think that's one of thegreat things that the fanatical
(19:08):
focus and looking at where thosegaps are.
That elevates broad.
That was a big change and yes,I've been through a lot of the
different changes through thetime, from starting with METI
and then working my way to thispoint.
So I think if we focus on whatis meeting the outcomes to
(19:29):
educate clinicians, establishcompetency and put a safe
practitioner on the road, that'swhere the key is for all the
simulation industry.
Jerrod Jefrries (19:38):
Wonderful, yeah , and it seems, it seems like to
me.
It's like with the shift andmaybe I'm, you know, it's too
macro, but the shift from CAE toElevate might be.
With CAE, you were a littlefish in a big pond.
Maybe there wasn't resourceallocation, or maybe it was just
overlooked within the suchniche market of CAE's overall
pie, where now you're a big fishin a little pond where it's
(20:00):
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 theworld.
Tim Whitaker (20:09):
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 businessstandpoint, aviation simulation
was the a hundred percent or the98% for them Right, and we were
the other percentage and thisallows us to put 100% at the
(20:32):
mission and do it that way, andso it was.
It wasn't a bad thing under CAEI don't want to say that, but
it's like any other business.
We can put our focus and makeit our own right at this point.
Great.
Deb Tauber (20:48):
Thanks.
You know you talked about the80-20 rule and what do you
believe are the biggestchallenges in healthcare
simulation and healthcareindustry and how can you apply?
Are the biggest challenges inhealthcare simulation and
healthcare industry and how canyou apply that to?
You know, make some changes.
Brian Truesdale (21:00):
Yeah, so we talked earlier about just
there's this whole workforceavailability problem.
I think one of the things thatwe've talked about internally is
that getting close to thecustomer means you start to
actually learn what the 80-20 is, and so maybe for your audience
, just to explain that rule alittle bit, what we believe is
that there are in 80-20, thatthere's a few inputs that
(21:21):
generate the most output or havethe most impact, and in the
world of business, we sometimestalk about it as 20% of my
customers generate 80% of myrevenues or 80% of my profits.
My products are the same thing,and so it's making sure that
we're focusing on the few thingsthat really have the most not
only impact on our business, butimpact on the industry, and so
(21:42):
I'm a strong advocate of using80-20 almost everywhere.
I do it probably to a fault,where I go home, and I talk
about it to my wife too oftenabout.
You know, this is where weshould spend our time, because
it's the 80 is the mostimportant, but when we talk
about it in our business, wealso want to talk about what is
the big problem that needs to besolved, and then how do we get
(22:03):
close to it and reallyunderstand it and so that we can
actually tailor or craft theright product or the right
solution to that need.
And, as Tim said, we're doing aton of EOC, we do focus groups,
we do a lot of market researchto really understand that well,
before we start going down thetrack of just trying to develop
a product for the sake ofdeveloping a product.
(22:24):
I think one of the things thatyou see in any industry and I
know it's here, I know it's inall the industries I've ever
been in any company can beguilty of saying we just need to
get another product out there.
We just need to get anotherproduct out there, we just need
to get another bell or whistleon our product.
And I think what I'm trying tohelp our teams here do is
realize that not every bell andwhistle is all that valuable and
(22:45):
all that important to ourcustomers.
It's far more important tounderstand what is really
important and then to make surewe get those boxes checked,
rather than saying, oh look, Ihave a thousand features in my
simulator and obviously Tim, yousaid it well you know the
SimCenter operator, the educator, the technician they might all
be the same person.
The more complex we make theproduct the harder, we're
(23:08):
actually making their job, andso by focusing on those few
things that really matter tothem and getting that job done
and hopefully maybe evenautomating some of the stuff
that isn't so important butneeds to be done, is a way that
we apply 80-20 kind of in ourworld and how we see the way we
can help the industry.
using 80-20 in many respects Isto say there are jobs that are
(23:30):
really important for thateducator or some operator or
technician.
And then there's things thatare not so important in their
world, what's their 80 andwhat's their 20.
And so if we can help take overthat 20 and off their plate by
putting it into, let's say, asoftware package like learning
space, and automate some ofthose things they have more time
to go spend with, with you know, the things that really matter
(23:53):
and really have an impact ongreat clinicians and experiences
for those students.
Jerrod Jefrries (23:59):
Yeah, no, well said, and I love that.
Every industry is special I putthat in air quotes since we're
a podcast here but there issimilar principles that you can
apply to every industry and Ithink it's well said, brian of
people just keep putting out anew feature, functionality,
which who knows how much costthat consumes, but that aside,
(24:19):
the customer doesn't see that.
Or the simulationist, but ofcourse that cost has to go
somewhere and you can only takeso many hits before something
really needs to come.
So I love that simplicity andthe focus on the safer,
healthier, more productiveoutcomes, and you might have
mentioned some of it, but whenit came to I mean, we even go
with learning space, for example, since you mentioned it, Brian,
(24:41):
but what is Elevate doing toaddress these specific
challenges of focusing on the 80versus 20?
I heard voice of customer, Iheard some market research, but
is there any more specifics youcan give us?
Brian Truesdale (24:52):
Yeah, sure.
So we actually just hosted awebinar the other day for some
of our big users of LearningSpace to try and update them on
kind of the roadmap ahead forLearning Space and where we're
going.
I think, again, some of theareas where we see opportunity
is to hopefully take away someof that, call it, back office
work that needs to be done andautomating it or making it much
(25:13):
simpler to accomplish it.
And so, as an example, you know, we're bringing AI into that
platform so that it can do a lotof the kind of thought process
behind, whether it's schedulingor even some evaluations, and
kind of call it augmenting whatthe educator does, so that they
don't have to kind of doeverything.
But we're really kind ofbringing the most important work
(25:35):
right out to the front andmoving a lot of the other work
to the back, where all that canget done, whether it's through
AI or just much more capablesoftware platforms.
That's one area.
I think another area is to againmake our product more flexible
and usable, and so we've got alot of new physical simulator
products coming out here in thenext year.
We'll be showing some at IMSH.
(25:57):
We showed some last year interms of modular mannequins and
things like that.
So we have the opportunity tomake it easy for customers to
configure a product in a waythat's best for their particular
lesson or whatever they'retrying to accomplish with their
students, accomplish with theirstudents.
Increasing the ability to change, diversity of those mannequins
(26:18):
and the kind of things that theycan give as an experience we
think is an opportunity to helpmake that again, that experience
far more tangible and, you know, bringing that fidelity to life
in such that somebody would crywhen something happens in one
of these simulators.
You know, sadly I'm trying toget more people to cry, I guess.
But I think when you can getthat kind of visceral emotion
(26:38):
from someone in that experience,I think you started to kind of
cross that barrier where they'rereally really deeply learning
about what it's going to be likewhen they have to do it in real
life.
It's obviously not exactly thesame, but if you can have that
emotional reaction, I thinkyou're starting to get close to
that edge of making it realenough.
Deb Tauber (26:58):
Yeah, brian, and that's part of what keeps the
simulationists passionate aboutthis field.
I've been in many simulationswhere learners have evoked the
emotions of full-blown tears.
It just really can strike thechord.
Brian Truesdale (27:16):
It just really can strike the chord.
Yeah, I can't say I've ever hadother products that you know
had that kind of emotionalimpact on a student or a
customer or user of a product.
But I would say it's amazingand it's obviously honestly an
honor to be able to be part ofthat and to be in that mission,
in that moment of a student'scareer where they're going to
remember that.
I can just give you a briefstory about this that I was in
(27:39):
the emergency room a couple ofmonths ago with my mother and I
was talking with the nurse thatwas there at the time and she
asked what I did and I told herI was with Elevate and I
explained what we did and shesaid, oh, you mean Apollo and
Juno and you know, ChristinaSheila knew them.
And she said they were like myfamily during nursing school and
(28:01):
she says you don't know howwell I know all of them and I
was like you know them betterthan I do.
She literally listed everysingle one of the products that
we made and I was, I was amazedat again, how connected she felt
to our products.
And it's just again.
It's an amazing honor to havethat kind of impact on a person
and their career and then youknow how inspired they become to
(28:21):
go do the work they do, whichis amazing work every day, so
again it's an amazingopportunity to create those
experiences for people.
Jerrod Jefrries (28:30):
Yeah, and to that point, Brian, I mean,
there's students that are spentso much time with these because
because it's not, you know, backto some of what Tim was saying
too is it's not always thatthey're in a high fidelity
simulator or simulation, butthey're always talking or doing
something with the simulatoritself.
Again, back to some of the costdiscussion we've had too is
(28:51):
like you don't always want tohave a technician or operator,
like prepare everything, but youstill need to see some sort of
fringe or or outside skill sets.
Uh, so they really get close tothem.
They really get close to them Iwas floored.
Brian Truesdale (29:04):
I was floored when she could kind of again
list them all off and she gaveme four or five stories of
different simulations that areliterally were vivid to her and
she can remember exactly whathappened and how she reacted.
So to me that's the kind ofreward that we get for what we
do, when you can see thatreflected back to you in just
their everyday work.
Deb Tauber (29:25):
Now, how do you feel that emerging technologies like
AI and spatial computing aregoing to impact simulation over
the next several years?
What are you guys' thoughts onthat?
Brian Truesdale (29:35):
Yeah, I mean I can start.
Certainly Tim and Melissa willhave more probably experiential
ways to share what they think.
But I think you know what I seeagain coming from other
industries and just in general,seeing what's emerging in both
the AI and then spatialcomputing, there's so much
opportunity to leverage thattechnology.
Now, again, leveraging for thesake of leveraging it or
(29:57):
throwing into the product is tome not the way forward.
So I think we have to pick ourspots and leverage them to do
really valuable work, ratherthan just saying, oh, I've got
an AI thing, because I think ifyou 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
(30:20):
educators to do what they loveto do to help make the students'
experience more impactful.
And then I think you've gotother technologies that now they
become more commercially viable, like, let's call it,
autonomous vehicles.
You think that I've come fromthe automotive world.
You know autonomous vehiclescan process images at a very,
very high rate of speed.
You know they're detectingwhether or not a pet
(30:41):
pedestrian's in the street or ananimal's in the road or
whatever, and guiding thatvehicle.
So you can imagine thosetechnologies that they become
more ubiquitous in otherindustries, become much more
available and less expensive tointegrate, even things like our,
our simulation products.
So, whether it's virtualreality or augmented reality or
(31:02):
ai or whatever, I think, asthose technologies get mass
consumed and adopted by a lot ofother date, you know daily
things that we use in our lives.
They become much more portableand integratable, so to speak,
into the products that wedeliver, which I lives.
They become much more portableand and integratable, so to
speak, into the products that wedeliver, which I think, it's
going to be amazing obviously,when you can mix and we have a
few products that do this todaythat mix both the tangible, you
(31:25):
know, physical simulator withaugmented reality.
You've now, you know, changedthat whole experience to be kind
of multi-dimensional, where nowI'm not just looking at, you
know, the outside of themannequin, where I can now look
inside the mannequin using an ARheadset.
And that helps again thatlearning experience where I can
visualize and I think we all, Ithink, can appreciate that being
(31:49):
able to visualize what you'redoing, and especially when you
can't really see what'shappening when you're doing,
let's say, a procedure on apatient, but you could visualize
what it's kind of looking likeon the inside as you're doing it
, whether that's a sonogram or asimple task like putting an IV
in an arm, you get at least abetter understanding of how you
are impacting your patients andhow you're solving their
(32:10):
problems.
So I think it was an immenseopportunity going forward.
I think probably the biggestchallenge is to figure out
what's the right use of it andagain, that I would say is kind
of independent of industry.
We can always get sucked into.
We're going to, you know, clickthe latest thing onto our
product and that's going to justsolve everybody's problems.
I think again listening to thecustomer, that fanatical focus
(32:33):
on the customer figuring out howdo I apply AI or how do I bring
virtual reality into this spacein a very meaningful way,
rather than just kind ofthrowing a bunch of stuff at
customers.
And so that's our approach isthat the technology has to be
intentionally placed rather thanjust kind of peanut butter
spread over everything.
Deb Tauber (32:55):
Exactly Deliberate about what is being done in the
field.
Yeah, I see you shaking yourhead there.
What do you want to?
Melissa Lowther (33:01):
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 dowith it.
I know there's a lot of AIscare at the same time, so
luckily we're very, veryintentional about it.
But one of the things that Brianis saying is we're not just
like, hey, this is newtechnology, let's use it.
(33:21):
It's hey, how can we use it toget the best outcomes we can get
from our learners, whoever theyare, but also how can we take
it and use it to removecognitive load off of our
operations folks and use it toremove cognitive load off of our
operations folks, our faculty,so that they can be much deeper
in you know the work that theyneed to be in with the learners
(33:43):
instead of some of the otherthings.
So really using it in that waybecause there's so much
cognitive load on the folks onthe you know operations team,
whether it's you know thespecialist, on the operations
team, whether it's thespecialist or the faculty so in
any way that we can use it in adual purpose to benefit the
learners and also benefit theSIMS staff is huge and I think
(34:05):
that's one of the things is tomake sure that, as Brian said,
it's very intentional to use itthat way, regardless of what
technology it is.
I mean, ai is certainly one ofthem, but really looking at all
technologies that way is a hugebenefit to make sure that we're
using it with a specific purposein mind and using it to its
best advantage.
Deb Tauber (34:30):
Well, thank you so much, and do you guys have any
closing thoughts that you wantto share with our listeners?
Brian Truesdale (34:37):
Sure, I think, again, we're excited as Elevate
to be part of the mission ofthis industry and again having
those emotional connections withour customers, and we have a
ton of opportunity to improvewhat we do every day.
And I think we actually kind ofhave an internal mantra now
that we've adopted I think wecall it elevate every day which
(34:57):
is you know, some people say youknow you should get just 1%
better every day, and that's ourgoal is to just continue to
push that envelope consistently,and you know it doesn't need to
be massive changes but it doesneed to be a consistent drumbeat
of improving outcomes for ourcustomers and their patients.
And so, again, we have a ton ofopportunities to go establish
(35:20):
our brand and our name.
But we've been here for a whileand we have a ton of great
people like Melissa and Tim andthe entire team that's behind us
doing all these great thingsevery day.
But our goal is to really helpmove the industry forward just
that little bit every day andelevate the industry.
And that's why we picked thename.
The name is it's all abouttrying to build, going forward
(35:41):
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 deliveron that desire to improve a
patient outcome.
So thank you again for invitingus.
It's great to talk.
Thank you.
Tim Whitaker (35:57):
Oh, I just appreciate being on and kind of
celebrating the exciting futurefor us here at Elevate and for
all of you that will be exposedto all of what we're trying to
do in the industry.
I think it's a new world, a newapproach that's coming in the
future for us and I'm excited tobe part of it.
(36:20):
So thanks for having us.
Jerrod Jefrries (36:22):
Thank you, thank you for the time.
Deb Tauber (36:26):
Melissa, anything you want to conclude with?
Melissa Lowther (36:29):
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 likethere's a we're sort of at this
like critical mass of likemomentum with healthcare
simulation and there's just somany facets of wonderful things
(36:50):
happening.
So it's really wonderful to beable to come and chat with you
all today and share about thatand hopefully, you know, in the
future we'll have some moreDefinitely.
You know for the listeners thatyou know, but keep an ear out
for what's happening withElevate Healthcare.
There's going to be some reallyexciting things at IMSH and in
the future.
So it's going to be a lot ofreally fun stuff is going to be
(37:16):
a lot of really fun stuff.
Deb Tauber (37:16):
Thank you, thank you Now.
If our listeners do want to geta hold of you now, because it's
a new, it's a whole new.
You know, where do you get ahold of the old CAE?
Where do you get a hold ofElevate?
How do you get a hold of yourrep?
What?
How can you help them?
How can we help them?
Brian Truesdale (37:27):
Sure.
So you know, certainly our newwebsite, Elevate.
net.
n healthcare.
net, is one way.
Obviously, there's again thereps that we've had that have
been out in the industry arestill out there, and we also
have some distributors as well.
So we definitely want you toreach out, but the website is
probably the easiest way toconnect through, and then we
obviously have LinkedIn pagesand all those great social media
(37:48):
points of contact.
So please do reach out, asMelissa suggested.
We'd love to hear more.
Again.
That fanatical focus on thecustomer is always out in front
of us to try and make sure thatwe reach out and hear where
people are seeing challenges andopportunities for our products
to be improved or just eventhings across just simulation
(38:09):
that need more support and needmore advancement.
So, yeah, we love to hear fromour customers and get more
feedback.
Like I said, we love to hearfrom our customers and get more
feedback.
Like I said, we did a quickcall with a lot of our Learning
Space users and got a ton ofgreat ideas and other
opportunities where we can helpthem do their jobs more
effectively.
Deb Tauber (38:28):
Thank you Well with that happy simulating.
Diclaimer/ SimVS/ Intro (38:40):
Thanks to SimVS again for sponsoring
this week's episode.
Happy simulating.
Thanks for joining us here atThe Sim Cafe.
We hope you enjoyed.
Visit us at www.
(39:03):
i.
nnovativesimsolutions.
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
simulation needs A turnkeysolution.
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