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Monthly Archives: April 2020

//April

CAE Recalls Laid-off Employees in Canada, Signs Ventilator Contract

CAE has recalled all remaining temporarily laid-off employees in Canada. Between recalls of employees providing essential services and recalls through the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) program, approximately 1,500 employees will be back on the payroll this week; the vast majority are based in Montreal and will work from home. The temporary layoffs were part of a series of measures CAE announced on April 6 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Image credit: CAE CAE also announced that it has signed a contract with the Government of Canada on April 10 to manufacture and supply 10,000 ventilators which will be used to help save lives of COVID-19 patients. The company is finalizing the design and testing of its CAE Air1 ventilator and is preparing for production. The first unit is expected to be delivered in early May to health authorities for certification. In addition, CAE announced that it is leveraging its global supply chain to source scarce N95 masks for humanitarian purposes in support of front-line health workers. To date, CAE has secured 100,000 N95 masks which will be delivered to the Quebec government. "I applaud the Government of Canada for its immediate and decisive action to support [...]

By | 2020-04-21T19:58:36+00:00 April 21st, 2020|
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Lockheed Martin Partners with Varjo

Lockheed Martin is partnering with Varjo for its visual simulation platform Prepar3D. Varjo is working with Lockheed Martin and the Prepar3D team to enable demanding training and simulation scenarios that require high-fidelity immersive displays. Image credit: Varjo Developed by Lockheed Martin, Prepar3D allows users to create training scenarios across aviation, maritime, and ground domains. The newly-released Prepar3D v5 brings new capabilities and features to solve emerging virtual and mixed reality training needs. It brings support for Varjo’s mixed reality headset, XR-1 Developer Edition. Prepar3D is also compatible with the VR-2 and VR-2 Pro. This opens up a range of new training applications where the real and synthetically generated worlds can be blended to create training solutions. “With the advent of the virtual reality technologies, we are always trying to find ways to integrate with the latest and greatest tech into our software,” said Kyle Myers, Software Engineering Manager at Prepar3D, in an interview with Varjo. “Virtual reality and mixed reality are going to be critical for our next generation of trainers.” With virtual reality, a key challenge is having the trainees interact with the cockpit when they cannot see what is around them. “If the visual acuity of [...]

By | 2020-04-16T21:34:16+00:00 April 16th, 2020|
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Circuit Stream Opened New AR/VR Workshops

Circuit Stream has opened up new workshops (some free) and webinars that cater to a wide variety of learners, as the growth in demand for augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) creators, designers and developers, as well as the number of AR/VR projects are expected to increase in the years to come to 1400%*. Upcoming workshops include: Oculus Quest Development, April 18th – Full-day workshop on developing Oculus Quest apps taught by a former Oculus Designer. Introduction to VR workshop, April 22nd – Get familiar with VR and Unity. Introduction to AR Workshop, May 13th – Learn how to set up an AR project and use Vuforia for creating mobile AR applications. Upcoming Advanced AR Workshops (Date TBD) – Deep dive in designing for AR. *https://hired.com/state-of-software-engineers#hottest-jobs

By | 2020-04-16T20:02:32+00:00 April 16th, 2020|
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Arch Virtual Releases New Acadicus Update

Sim labs may be closed due to COVID-19, but Arch Virtual’s Virtual Reality sim lab remains open 24/7 and is accessible from home. The company released a major Acadicus update, in which users can explore free VR medical training simulations, live standardized patients, and a Coronavirus info hub, as well as manipulate animations and vital signs. Image credit: Arch Virtual This update is an important milestone on Arch Virtual’s mission to multiply access to medical simulation by reducing costs, increasing realism, enabling remote participation, and offering an expansive inventory of simulation content. Acadicus is available to download for Oculus Rift for free from the company’s website.

By | 2020-04-16T19:29:23+00:00 April 16th, 2020|
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PSMF Awarded $5M to Help Advance Mission

The Patient Safety Movement Foundation (PSMF), a global organization dedicated to achieving zero preventable hospital deaths worldwide, was awarded a five-year, $5 million grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The grant will allow PSMF to significantly expand its work to accelerate the awareness and implementation of patient safety processes around the world. “We believe wholeheartedly in the vision and mission of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation,” said Joe Kiani, Chairman of the Masimo Foundation, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Masimo, and former Chairman of PSMF. “Now more than ever, supporting PSMF’s work is vital. During this global pandemic, patient safety is especially at risk because our caregivers’ own safety is being compromised as they combat COVID-19. Patient and provider safety are crucial to improving patient outcomes.” “As part of our responsibility to improve the safety of patients globally, the Patient Safety Movement Foundation will expand its efforts to create additional resources for hospitals and healthcare workers,” said Michael A.E. Ramsay, MD, FRCA, Chairman of the PSMF and Chairman of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Management at Baylor University Medical Center. “Our priority is to bring all stakeholders together to work collaboratively on solutions [...]

By | 2020-04-16T19:04:14+00:00 April 16th, 2020|
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PSMF Releases COVID-19 Topic on PatientAider

The Patient Safety Movement Foundation has launched its COVID-19 PatientAider resource. PatientAider is a mobile app used for patient and family education and navigation during their hospital stay. Current topics range from blood clots to delirium and now PSMF has added a COVID-19 topic. The PatientAider app can be downloaded through Google Play and the App Store, as well as through the PSMF website.  

By | 2020-04-16T16:11:16+00:00 April 16th, 2020|
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VirTra Awarded $1.6M Driving Simulator Contract

VirTra, Inc. has been awarded an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract from the Department of State for the Republic of Mexico with a value of $1.6 million. Under this new contract, the company will deliver VirTra Driver Training Systems (V-DTS) and use-of-force simulators with drop-in weapon recoil kits to numerous state police academies and correctional facilities in Mexico. This order, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2020, follows the successful delivery and installation of 11 driving simulators previously purchased for the Republic of Mexico in March 2019. Image credit: VirTra “Once this order is completed, VirTra simulators will be in an additional 10 states in Mexico, and in total, we’ll have 77 simulators deployed across the country,” said Jason Mulcahy, General Manager of VirTra. “Given the current global social and economic challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, we're particularly proud to provide state-of-the-art training to our foreign allies in the Republic of Mexico at this time.” Through the preliminary order, VirTra will be providing the distributor with multiple simulators, including V-ST PROs, as well as various accessories such as drop-in recoil kits that convert standard firearms into training firearms, and Threat-Fire electric shoot-back [...]

By | 2020-04-20T16:25:56+00:00 April 16th, 2020|
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CAE Healthcare Releases Point-Of-Care Lung Ultrasound Training Suite

CAE Healthcare released a new product suite engineered to provide hands-on foundational training to help physicians quickly learn to scan and assess coronavirus patients using point-of-care ultrasound at the bedside. The suite combines the best of three CAE hardware and software product platforms: CAE Blue Phantom, CAE ICCU e-learning and the CAE Vimedix ultrasound simulator. The new Blue Phantom COVID 19 Lung Ultrasound Training Simulator was designed in collaboration with physicians across the world, and it is the first of its kind commercially available. Image credit: CAE Healthcare The training bundle covers a range of pre-existing medical conditions and potential complications. The CAE ICCU and Vimedix modules are being offered free of charge through the month of April. “Clinical providers and educators on the front lines of the pandemic are communicating with us regularly about their most urgent training needs,” said Rekha Ranganathan, president of CAE Healthcare. “With their input, we were able to very quickly develop relevant COVID-19 scenarios on our existing ultrasound simulation platforms. We are focusing a great deal of our expertise and our efforts on delivering practical, accessible, just-in-time training that will help medical providers save more lives.” In the United States, the Medical [...]

By | 2020-04-16T18:48:40+00:00 April 16th, 2020|
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CAE Healthcare and Area9 Lyceum Offer Ventilator Course

CAE Healthcare is collaborating with Area9 Lyceum to provide clinicians with an online COVID-19 Ventilator Reskilling course. With modules covering basics in respiratory physiology, mechanical ventilation and goals of COVID-19 care, the course is being provided free of charge during the month of April. “Clinical providers across specialities are being called to hospitals to provide care for COVID-19 patients, and they are seeking practical training and knowledge,” said Rekha Ranganathan, President of CAE Healthcare. “With the Area9 Lyceum adaptive learning platform, we can efficiently train clinicians with varied levels of exposure to ventilator management to achieve the required competencies for effective care.” “The need for COVID-19 education of health care providers is explosive. We have seen this manifested clearly the past three weeks where more than 65,000 laboratory professionals have been certified on the COVID-19 course developed by Area9 Lyceum and leading laboratory professionals,” said Dr. Ulrik Juul Christensen (MD), Executive Chairman of Area9 Lyceum. The courses are freely available at https://area9lyceum.com/use-cases/courses/. Since its release in April, more than 1,325 clinicians around the world have registered for the COVID-19 Ventilator Reskilling Course. Throughout April, CAE Healthcare is also offering complimentary webinars and its COVID-19 Simulated Clinical Experience (SCE) to help [...]

By | 2020-04-16T14:26:04+00:00 April 16th, 2020|
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Students Use 3D Printers to Make Face Shields

With health care workers at the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, the demand for personal protective equipment is at an all-time high. To address this challenge, students at Camdenton High School are using 3D printers to help produce hundreds of face shields for health care workers at Lake Regional Hospital in Osage Beach, Missouri. The printers were provided by nearby Camdenton Middle School, which received them as part of a $16-million grant from the MU College of Education’s eMINTS National Center. All image credits: MU News Bureau “To see the face shields being used by medical professionals is encouraging and the reaction has been super positive,” said Zane Foulk, a senior at Camdenton High School and member of the Camdenton For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics team. “We have been making roughly 40 face shields a day and will keep going until we run out of material or the hospitals get what they need.” As COVID-19 continues to spread, what started as a simple ask from Lake Regional Hospital for 150 face shields quickly snowballed into additional requests from first responders, dentist offices and even U.S. troops serving overseas in Afghanistan. “Our small, [...]

By | 2020-04-09T20:42:43+00:00 April 9th, 2020|
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