Infoscitex Corporation — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: As new simulation systems are developed, acquired and integrated into the teaching environ

Description

As new simulation systems are developed, acquired and integrated into the teaching environment, there is a constant tradeoff to be made between increased simulator capability and fidelity and the costs associated with acquiring increasingly complex simulation technology. An automated tool to assist in these tradeoffs by determining the return on investment (ROI) of additional or improved capabilities would help control simulation acquisition costs and optimize the mix of traditional vs. simulation-based training. Infoscitex Corporation (IST) has assembled a distinguished team to address this proposal. In conjunction with Dr. Jan Stepanek, co-director of the Mayo Clinic Multidisciplinary Simulation Center in Arizona, and his team of clinicians and researchers we are proposing a novel and innovative concept for an intelligent software tool that addresses this need. Our Medical Simulation-based Training Assessment and Resource Tradeoff (MedSTART) system captures medical subject matter expert (SME) knowledge and objective evaluations to assess return on investment of a given set of simulation capabilities. MedSTART estimates the effectiveness of simulator features at various fidelity levels then evaluates costs and benefits throughout the system lifecycle. At the conclusion of Phase II, we will have a pre-production version of our software product ready for immediate deployment in selected applications.