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Operative Experience Inc. revolutionizes Trauma Care Training with a Cost-Effective, Purpose-Built TCCS Tier 3 Simulator
“Move fast, break things.” It’s an adage used in the tech world to encourage renegade innovation at any cost. But what if there was a way to move fast and fix things? What if “move fast, build things” means that more lives will be saved around the world? What if there was a way to foster rapid responses to problems by innovating through teamwork and a respect for standards, procedures, and guardrails?
That’s what Operative Experience Inc. (OEI) set out to do in late 2025. Seeing a sudden, increased need in the U.S. and abroad for cost-effective, high-quality medical training simulators, they began working on a prototype with a goal of being released to the market as quickly as possible.
This March, OEI unveiled its new TCCS Tier 3 Pro trauma simulator, available in anatomically life-identical male and female configurations, mere months after first putting marker to whiteboard for a brainstorming session.
It’s a stunning milestone for OEI, a small business on a mission to revolutionize military, civilian, and humanitarian medical practice through better, more responsive training tools.
But it’s not unexpected. Over the last five years, OEI has developed a world-renowned core technology across its platform of trauma care simulators and is known for and adept at pushing boundaries and leading with creativity. Just last year, they made technological history. Recognizing an unmet need, the OEI team designed and built the PCCS Pro Female, the first high-fidelity female trauma simulator and the only one to have been field tested and accredited by the U.S. Army.
Instead of a long, winding road to create and launch the TCCS Tier 3 Pro, OEI has used a flight deck: the shortest, most direct route to gather maximum velocity and impact.
And it worked.
Training To Save Lives
In recent years, the Department of Defense instituted a new military-wide medical training requirement called Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC). This evidence-based program works to increase patient survival rates by ensuring that all service members have basic medical training to care for the most preventable combat deaths. There are four tiers of TCCC, which build on each other and increase in skill and difficulty:
The OEI team used backwards planning to develop the prototype’s capabilities, starting first with a full list of skills required by TCCC curriculum with a special focus on the third tier. As a result, it’s a comprehensive tool, able to be used for practice with any skill at any level of TCCC training.
The product’s adaptability and affordability mean that thousands of medics and corpsmen will have access to simulators to refine Tier 3 skills and reactions in various training scenarios.
Medics and corpsmen aren’t the only ones to benefit from the TCCS Tier 3 Pro. «I think there’s an application for all service member training to use our simulators,» said Jason Robbins, CMSgt (Ret.), USAF and Vice President of Programs and Global Support for OEI, noting that all service members are required to take Tier 1 training, opening the applicability for the simulators at a vast scale.
«The product that we are providing has a solid, consistent technology that delivers all these training capabilities, fulfilling a series of training needs based on the requirements established by the Tier 3 regulations».
Pivoting and Realigning
In U.S. and international markets, civilian and military purchasing power continues to demand increased affordability as budgets are stretched and training requirements are increased. «We realize that there is a growing demand for more capability for less cost,» said Lou Oberndorf, Operative Experience’s Chairman and CEO.
Because OEI is in close communication with U.S. military service branches, they are well aware of the needs of each, in part informing the genesis of the TCCS Tier 3 Pro.
The challenge for OEI? How to provide the quality products customers expect at a cost-effective price point. Scaling back on OEI’s proven, successful technology was a non-starter. «We wanted to make sure that the durability and the training capabilities were not compromised», said Renata Sutton, U.S. Air Force Business Development Manager. The team had to get creative, poring over the ways customers use their products and getting into fine details around TCCC requirements and expectations.
Furthermore, by using a rugged, purpose-built chassis suited to the physical demands of Tier 3 training scenarios, OEI was able to reduce costs without sacrificing the performance or durability its customers expect. «The capabilities of the TCCS Tier 3 Pro are embedded in the technology. They’re not embedded in the shell», explained Carlos Moreno, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. «The product that we are providing has a solid, consistent technology that delivers all these training capabilities, fulfilling a series of training needs based on the requirements established by the Tier 3 regulations».
Instead of a long, winding road to create and launch the TCCS Tier 3 Pro, OEI has used a flight deck, the shortest, most direct route to gather maximum velocity and impact. And it worked.
Building a New Reality
The pressures to create the TCCS Tier 3 Pro go beyond the economic. The U.S. Department of Defense’s requirement for all service members to receive medical training compounds the need for many quality simulators dispatched across the nation. Because the U.S. military’s processes and programs are accepted as the medical gold standard, other international organizations learn from the service branches and follow suit, increasing demand for the products used by U.S. troops.
This proliferation of need gives OEI a unique opportunity to positively affect the quality of medical training, and therefore their outcomes, more deeply and significantly the world over. With products at various price points and capability thresholds, OEI’s portfolio offers robust options for client needs and budgets.
Built on years of meticulous work, care, and foresight, the speed and success of the newest addition to the OEI portfolio is a game-changer. «Innovation is in our DNA», said Oberndorf. «If we hadn’t done the work in the last three to five years developing a solid and proven common platform for our simulators, we would not be able to pull this off». TCCS Tier 3 Pro is the first of its kind on the market, again underscoring OEI’s cutting-edge industry leadership.
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