Three companies, one university simulation centre and no commercial booths: the first Simulation Learning Exchange, hosted at the King’s College London SaIL Centre, offered keynotes and hands-on workshops on AI credibility, ultrasound education, inventory control, moulage, equipment repair and Wi-Fi, showing that industry can give something back to the simulation community.
Simulation teams are busy.
More learners. More sessions. More equipment. More technology. More expectation. More pressure to deliver high-quality education with limited time, limited budgets and, in many cases, ageing resources.
The problems are familiar to anyone who works in simulation. Equipment goes missing. Consumables disappear. Task trainers need repairing. Silicone tears. Wi-Fi fails at exactly the wrong moment. New technologies arrive faster than the frameworks used to evaluate them. Ultrasound becomes increasingly relevant to clinical practice but is not always easy to scale in education. Simulation is expected not only to teach skills, but to support patient safety, test systems and improve outcomes.
These are not always glamorous problems.
But they are real.
Not Products, Not Sales: The Starting Point
That was the starting point for the Simulation Learning Exchange. Not products. Not sales. Not commercial stands dressed up as education. The idea was to create a day focused on practical problems and shared solutions.
A couple of years ago, Tariq Shahab from Adam,Rouilly and I had a conversation. We asked a simple question: what if industry collaborated to give something back to the simulation community?
An Industry That Competes, a Community That Shares
In healthcare simulation, collaboration between companies does not always come easily. Some companies in this market can, at times, appear secretive, aloof, highly competitive or transactional. But that is not unique to simulation. It happens in many industries. Where companies compete for the same budgets, the same institutions and the same procurement opportunities, people naturally become protective.
There are NDAs, contracts, assurances and sensitivities. There can be a layer of suspicion before collaboration even begins. In recent years, as budgets have become tighter, that pressure has only increased.
But simulation itself is not built like that.
Simulation is built on sharing. Educators share scenarios. Technicians share fixes. Faculty share ideas. Centres share lessons learned, mistakes made and systems improved. The whole discipline moves forward because people are willing to exchange knowledge.
So perhaps industry has a responsibility to behave more like the community it serves.
The event was a collaboration between Adam,Rouilly, Limbs & Things and SimulationCollective, kindly hosted at the King’s College London SaIL Centre. The principles were simple: provide workshops and keynotes that help solve real problems, remove the commercial element, and make the day about the people in the room.
In other words: this event is for you.
The Keynotes: AI Credibility and Ultrasound at Scale
We began with Ahmed Sharaf, CEO and Co-Founder of MedAscend, who delivered the opening keynote: “AI Simulation in Healthcare Education: What Makes It Credible?” First on is always the toughest slot of the day. People are still arriving, coffee is settling, and the room is deciding what kind of event it is going to be. Ahmed handled it brilliantly.
His message was clear: all you simulation geeks are going to have AI thrown at you left, right and centre. AI will mark learners, give feedback, produce analytics and claim to save faculty time. But if AI is marking us, then who is marking the AI? Ahmed explained why institutions must ask whether an AI simulation tool is valid, safe, inclusive, governed properly and right for their learners.
Next came Dr David Cloete, Consultant in Emergency Medicine at John Radcliffe, with “Scaling Up Ultrasound Education.” Ultrasound, especially in the UK, has been a slow grower both in clinical practice and in simulation. Many simulationists in the room may not yet have fully considered it part of their simulation world. David explained, entertained and educated us on why it is so important, connecting ultrasound not just to technology, but to confidence, access, safe practice and the future of clinical education.
Four Workshops, Four Real Problems
The workshops then took the day into practical territory.
Numair Shahpur and Burhanuddin from King’s College London led the Simulation Centre Asset and Inventory Control Workshop. This really demonstrated the importance of asset tracking and inventory control. The busier simulation centres become, the more organised their systems need to be. The more education delivered, the more essential it is to know what equipment exists, where it is, what condition it is in and when it needs maintenance or replacement.
Raul Rodriguez, CEO of Emulant Solutions, led the Moulage Workshop. Raul flew in especially from Spain to share his skills, energy and creativity. A moulage workshop with Raul is always a talking point. This man loves sharing his skills with a brush, paint and occasionally a microwave. He showed how plausibility can be created out of simplicity, and I hope the audience absorbed some of his talent.
Adam,Rouilly and Limbs & Things delivered The Repair Shop, focused on repair, maintenance and extending the life of simulation equipment. Sustainability is hugely important. Gone are the days when silicone-covered devices should simply be disposed of or left damaged in a cupboard. The message was clear: reuse, sustain, repair.
Finally, Matt Poole from SimulationCollective and Marcus Parker from Limbs & Things led Overcoming Wi-Fi Issues in Simulation Centres. Welcome to geek central. I remember working for a certain company, with a certain product, where every single Wi-Fi router seemed to fail. After this workshop, I finally understood why. Everyone walked away with the numbers 1, 6 and 11 repeating in their heads. Who would have thought connectivity could be so interesting?
Closing on Patient Safety
The day closed with Colette Laws-Chapman, Deputy Director SaIL at GSTT and ASPiH Immediate Past President, speaking on “The Role of Simulation in Patient Safety.” Her delivery of the journey of simulation inspired us all. For me, the cherry on top of the cake of simulation is the system test: one of the most tangible ways to connect simulation to patient outcomes in a busy, hectic emergency room. Colette was passionate, hilarious at times, and completely committed.
Not Perfect, But Important
The Simulation Learning Exchange was not perfect, because no first event ever is. But it was important.
It showed that industry can collaborate without commercialising the room. It showed that companies can compete in the market while still giving something back to the community.
Special thanks must go to Anne Allin, Ruban Dhinsa, Daniel Mogentale, Liv Morris, Tariq Shahab, Dee Davey, Duncan Harrison, the wider back-office teams, our hosts at King’s College London SaIL Centre, Gianluca Nepi and Giacomo Gensini from SIMZINE, who flew in from Italy, and everyone who attended, asked questions, took notes and shared ideas.
Simulation is built on collaboration.
Industry should be brave enough to follow its lead.
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