Amanda Towner, Author at SCT

Siemens Virtualizes Maintenance Training with DiSTI

Siemens Power & Gas utilizes DiSTI's VE Studio for Unity to develop virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) training for its global gas turbine field service solutions business. From virtual maintenance training on Gas Turbines to OSHA-focused safety training, Siemens has embraced virtual training to resounding results. This includes a reduction in overall training time by 66%. Image credit: DiSTI "We can provide capabilities and experiences virtually that we could not provide in the classroom or even during hands-on training due to cost and safety considerations,” says Kevin Carpenter, Global Training Network Director. Virtualization of training is a high priority as technologies provide new opportunities to improve skills, safety, and provide opportunities for significant cost savings for Siemens and its customers. Virtual training has been used within Siemens for many years, however, the pace at which virtual and augmented reality technologies are developing provides new opportunities to accelerate digitalization initiatives across all of Siemens businesses. One of the critical success factors for virtual training is being cost-effective and highly scalable across multiple technologies with quality performance of real-time graphics. To achieve this, Siemens selected VE Studio Virtual Training Development Platform, which utilizes Unity’s real-time 3D development platform. [...]

By Amanda Towner| 2020-02-06T23:21:03+00:00 February 6th, 2020|

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Inovus Medical Appoints New Distributor for Canada

Inovus Medical has recently appointed Keir Surgical as the new representative in Canada for its complete product portfolio. Keir Surgical will offer expert guidance to all potential customers in Canada providing them with the right solution for their individual general and gynaecology surgery training needs. Image credit: Inovus Medical Inovus Medical chose to partner with Keir Surgical due to their strong technical background in surgery and gynaecology. As a distributor of surgical devices with a well-established commercial team they have the knowledge, experience and resources to ensure the Inovus products can be delivered to the Canadian market on a country-wide scale. Keir Surgical will be exhibiting the Inovus portfolio at a number of regional and national conferences throughout the year, most notably at the Canadian Surgery Forum in Vancouver from 24-26 September where the LapAR will be on show. Matt Stanimir, Director Business Development Keir Surgical, stated: “Keir Surgical is excited to partner with Inovus Medical, bringing new and innovative surgical simulation products to the Canadian Market. Improved training and simulation will better prepare surgeons and trainees, thereby improving outcomes for Canadian patients. Keir Surgical is proud to support this initiative”.

By Amanda Towner| 2020-02-06T17:36:26+00:00 February 5th, 2020|

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King Crow Studios Wins US Air Force Contract

King Crow Studios was selected as one of six recipients of a $1-million contract from the United States Air Force for their training and simulation application. The contracts were awarded at the inaugural Simulators Pitch Day in December, part of the Interservice/Industry, Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), which was the third and final pitch event orchestrated by the U.S. Air Force as part of their efforts to find and contract with companies that don’t typically do government work. King Crow Studios’ software will give Air Force pilots a virtual reality (VR)-based training program to learn advanced combat tactics, proper safety procedures and more. In August 2019, the company was awarded a $50,000 phase one grant from the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research program to design VR prototypes for Air Force training. The company had developed a similar software training tool for ExxonMobil last year to better prepare operators for crane lifts as part of the expansion project at the ExxonMobil Baton Rouge polyolefins plant. “We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with the Air Force on this project. The fact that they’ve reached outside their typical pool of contract companies to find innovative approaches to their training procedures is really [...]

By Amanda Towner| 2020-02-04T19:57:31+00:00 February 4th, 2020|

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GP Strategies Wins Supplier of the Year Award for Health and Safety

Global performance improvement solutions provider GP Strategies Corporation has won the 2019 Supplier of the Year Award for Health and Safety from AVANGRID, a diversified energy company. The award was presented to GP Strategies during a ceremony near AVAGRID's headquarters in Orange, Connecticut. GP Strategies has a 50-year history of providing technical training, consulting, and engineering services to the energy sector, one of the most highly regulated and technically complex markets in the world. GP Strategies' expertise supports health, safety, and compliance practices in the industry. AVANGRID is a sustainable energy company operating eight electric and natural gas companies serving 3.3 million customers in New York and New England, as well as a renewable energy business with facilities in 22 states. With 6,500 employees, health and safety is a major concern. "Safety is a core value. We say this often at AVANGRID because we believe it, and we work to reinforce it every day," stated Dave LaBelle, AVANGRID's Vice President of Environmental Health and Safety. "GP Strategies shares our philosophy that well-equipped, adaptable employees are our most valuable asset. Providing them with the tools and training to be successful in new and innovative ways is critical to our success as [...]

By Amanda Towner| 2020-02-03T18:46:36+00:00 February 3rd, 2020|

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AVT Simulation Wins Construction Equipment Trainer Contract

AVT Simulation in Orlando, Florida, was awarded a $31 million firm-fixed-price contract to design, develop, integrate, manage, deliver, install, test, document and support construction equipment virtual trainers. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date in January 2025. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Orlando, Florida, is the contracting activity. The Construction Equipment Virtual Trainer (CEVT) is to both train soldiers upon initial entry and transition from the classroom to actual equipment by proving a null risk training environment. CEVT shall provide realistic and challenging training using simulated terrain and movement characteristics that enable the student to transfer motor-skills from simulator to construction equipment. CEVT allows soldiers to perform construction tasks that vary from leveling earth to excavating a trench and from constructing a stockpile to loading a hauling unit. The proposed contract will allow the Army to procure, install, and maintain motion-based simulators for five types of construction equipment: Motor Grader 120M, Scraper 621G, Dozer D7R, Wheel Loader 924H, and Excavator 2040. Kevin Vizzarri, Vice President of Business Development at AVT Simulation, said: “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to provide Army Engineers with a training solution that will increase their readiness. We [...]

By Amanda Towner| 2020-01-31T15:46:03+00:00 January 31st, 2020|

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FDA to Host Workshop on AR/VR in Medicine

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will host a public workshop on virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in medicine on March 5, 2020, at the FDA White Oak Campus in Silver Springs, Maryland. The workshop, entitled "Medical Extended Reality: Toward Best Evaluation Practices for Virtual and Augmented Reality in Medicine” aims to discuss evaluation techniques for hardware, standards development, and assessment challenges for applications of Extended Reality (XR) in medicine. The goal is to identify critical gaps that may impede medical XR device development, innovation, and to advance the evaluation of medical XR devices and applications, thus accelerating the development of safe and effective medical XR devices, benefiting patients and healthcare. The meeting will be webcasted live and the archived link will be posted on the FDA website for viewing after the workshop.

By Amanda Towner| 2020-01-29T18:01:12+00:00 January 29th, 2020|

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HCA Houston Healthcare Unveils First Mobile Training Ambulance

Officials with HCA Houston Healthcare unveiled Houston’s newest air ambulance service and the city’s first advanced mobile training ambulance and patient simulator, two new programs designed to enhance high-level adult and pediatric trauma care. HCA Houston Healthcare’s new AIRLife helicopters will operate 24/7, staffed with highly trained flight nurses, paramedics and skilled pilots. The first AIRLife helicopter will be based at The Woman’s Hospital of Texas. A second helicopter will be based at HCA Houston Healthcare Conroe. Both will have a range of approximately 120 miles and will respond to assist at 911 calls as well as transfer adult and pediatric patients from other hospitals in need of a higher level of care. The new helicopters feature expanded cabin space and an increased maximum takeoff weight, according to Allen Sims, EMS executive at HCA Houston Healthcare. Marty Delaney, HCA Houston Healthcare’s vice president of medical transport, will manage the AIRLife helicopters and ground ambulances. The second EMS program, HCA Houston Healthcare’s mobile simulation ambulance, is a dynamic, next-generation EMS training center and portable classroom on wheels. The “simbulance” will be equipped with adult, child and infant mannequins capable of simulating a wide variety of trauma and medical emergencies, including airway [...]

By Amanda Towner| 2020-01-27T20:34:58+00:00 January 27th, 2020|

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State Releases $10.5M for SIUE Health Sciences Building

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced the release of $10.5 million in planning funds to create preliminary designs for a Health Science Building (HSB) on the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) campus. Pritzker made the announcement in the Morris University Center’s Meridian Ballroom. The complex will include approximately 221,000 square feet. The project’s total cost is approximately $105 million. It would be the largest building on the SIUE campus. SIUE operates a School of Pharmacy (SOP), a School of Nursing (SON), a School of Dental Medicine (SDM) in Alton, and related health sciences programs in various disciplines to serve central and southern Illinois. The University has seen broad expansion of the health sciences program in the Department of Applied Health, including exercise science, kinesiology, nutrition and dietetics, public health, and speech-language pathology and audiology. “This new Health Science Building is an incredibly exciting step forward and will allow SIUE and the SIU System to expand its leadership in health science education in southern Illinois and beyond,” said SIUE Chancellor Randy Pembrook. “Specifically, the additional space will facilitate more simulation training, research, and allow growth in programs within nursing, pharmacy and related health science areas. In short, it will improve the overall [...]

By Amanda Towner| 2020-01-24T20:07:58+00:00 January 24th, 2020|

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President Clinton to Keynote Patient Safety Summit

President Clinton will return for the 8th year in the row as a Keynote Speaker for the World Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit on Saturday, March 7, 2020. President Bill Clinton. Image credit: Patient Safety Movement Foundation. The 2020 World Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit will be co-convened by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, European Society of Anaesthesiology and the International Society for Quality in Health Care held March 5-7, 2020 in Huntington Beach, California. The summit will bring international hospital leaders, medical and information technology companies, the patient advocacy community, public policy makers and government officials, together to discuss solutions to the leading challenges that cause preventable patient deaths in hospitals across the world.

By Amanda Towner| 2020-01-23T22:10:57+00:00 January 23rd, 2020|

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Kitware Releases Latest Versions of Medical Simulation Tools

Kitware has released the latest versions of two of its popular medical training and simulation toolkits – the Interactive Medical Simulation Toolkit (iMSTK) 2.0 and the Pulse Physiology Engine (Pulse) 2.3. Updates to these toolkits include improved models and functionality based on feedback from user and developer communities. Kitware showcased these latest features and improvements at the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH) in San Diego. Both iMSTK and Pulse provide the technology to build virtual simulators that can help practicing surgeons, medical students, residents, and nurses to rehearse or plan medical procedures. For example, iMSTK has been used to help medical professionals prepare for biopsies, resectioning, radiosurgery, and laparoscopy without compromising patient safety in the operating room. It can also help accredit potential surgeons in basic skills for laparoscopy, endoscopy or robotic surgery. Pulse provides necessary physiologic feedback for clinicians training to provide life-saving medical treatment, such as for hemorrhage, tension pneumothorax, airway trauma, ventilator use and settings, and anaphylaxis. iMSTK is a free, open source toolkit that offers product developers and researchers all the software components they need to build and test virtual simulators for medical training and planning. Release 2.0 offers improved functionality with many new [...]

By Amanda Towner| 2020-01-23T19:26:30+00:00 January 23rd, 2020|

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