Penn State Hershey Simulation News – August 2018

Fellowship News –

 The Center’s Simulation Education and Research Fellowship continues to grow. In the past few months we welcomed Aldo Crespo, MD, the Curriculum and Academic Coordinator at O&M Medical School in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Dr. Crespo spent three months at Hershey full-time in the fellowship and is now completing his graduation requirements back home over the summer. He will be rejoining us at Hershey in October to finish the program.

Also joining the fellowship program is Alexander Answine, MD. Dr. Answine is recently graduated from the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine. He will be with the Clinical Simulation Center for the next year as he prepares to enter residency.

Construction –

After a long wait, construction of the Center’s new Highly Infectious Disease ICU simulation room is nearly complete. This room is modeled after the real patient room in the hospital where a highly infectious disease patient will be admitted. With entry and exit rooms for donning and doffing personal protective attire, the room will also help provide some much needed growth space for the Center. It will be completed on September 28.

International Medical Graduate Program –

The innovative International Medical Graduate Program, being led by Simulation Fellow Lidys Rivera MD, has been progressing. This program is designed to prepare international medical graduates to take US medical licensure examinations. The program includes problem-based learning cases supplemented with simulations. The program has had some local publicity, including:

Dr. Rivera, along with Simulation Educator Theresa Brosche and Dr. Dan Weber, presented on this program at the Pennsylvania’s Healthcare Mosaic conference in Philadelphia in June.

Dr. Rivera will also be presenting a poster on the course at the Latina Researchers Network and Conference in New York City later this month.

New Equipment –

Major Simulation Publication –

Clinical Simulation Director Elizabeth Sinz, MD, MEd, FCCM, FSSH, was a coauthor on a major simulation publication published in the journal Circulation. “Educational Strategies to Improve Outcomes from Cardiac Arrest: A Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association” is available online at

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2018/06/20/CIR.0000000000000583