MSR – Israel Center for Medical Simulation

"MSR uses medical simulation to improve the clinical and communication skills of healthcare professionals, without exposing patients to the normal risks of medical training. This creates a safer, more effective medical culture that is also more responsive to patient needs."

—Amitai Ziv, MD, MHA, founder and director of
MSR, is a world renowned expert in the field
of medical simulation.

Facilities

MSR is located at the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer in Israel. Sheba is the largest medical facility in Israel, recognized internationally for its leadership in healthcare and medical research.

Sheba employs close to 6,000 healthcare professionals who provide almost four million treatments and medical tests to more than one million patients a year. Its 150-acre campus on the outskirts of Tel Aviv uniquely combines a major Acute Care Hospital with a Rehabilitation Hospital.

MSR is designed as a virtual hospital, offering a wide spectrum of medical simulation technologies. These include computer-driven physiological mannequins, advanced task trainers for manual skills and live simulated patients played by role-playing actors. MSR combines these different technologies in "high-risk" scenarios to develop and build crucial clinical and communication skills and enable team training in risk-free environments. Customized audiovisual equipment and one-way glass facilitates real-time observation and allows effective debriefing and constructive feedback to trainees.

Future Plans

As the field of medical simulation advances, MSR will continue to maintain its leadership edge by expanding into developing medical simulation domains, promoting implementation of advanced simulation modalities and fostering original teaching programs.

Donations

MSR is a unit of the not-for-profit Medical Research Infrastructure Development and Health Services Fund by the Sheba Medical Center. MSR operates on a fee-for-service basis; however, all research and development activities, physical expansion and start-up costs associated with progress into new fields of simulation are dependent on the support of generous donors.

About MSR

"On a recent trip to Israel I had the opportunity to visit MSR and experience the ongoing programs. The sophistication, detail, and accuracy of the simulations are unparalleled. The integration of skills training and situation simulation is superb, reflecting the outstanding leadership of Amitai Ziv. MSR is truly the most advanced center of its type in the world."

—Jeffrey L. Ponsky, MD
Chairman, American Board of Surgery
Chairman, Department of Surgery, Case School of Medicine
Cleveland, Ohio

The Israel Center for Medical Simulation (MSR) is a world leader in simulation-based medical education. MSR strives to improve patient-safety and healthcare providers' skills through new approaches to healthcare training and clinical practice.

MSR works to reduce errors and improve quality of care by training on teamwork, clinical and communication skills. MSR proactively exposes trainees to simulated extreme and challenging clinical and humanistic encounters. MSR trained over 20,000 healthcare professional between the years 2002-2005.

MSR's programs make extensive use of the newest and most sophisticated technologies available in the field of medical simulation education. In addition, MSR researches and develops technologies to further enhance medical simulation.

MSR conducts hands-on experiential simulation training in a wide variety of clinical domains such as Anesthesia, Cardiology, OB-GYN, Trauma, Chemical & Biological Warfare Management, and more.

MSR enhances communication skills through programs dedicated to teaching challenging tasks, such as delivering bad news, obtaining consent and the detection of domestic abuse.

MSR also works in collaboration with the Tel Aviv University Sackler Faculty of Medicine in providing simulation-based personality screening of medical school candidates. This breakthrough project seeks to improve the humanistic quality of medical school candidates by assessing their personal and inter-personal characteristics.

MSR is an integral part of the accreditation and licensure process of several of Israel's healthcare professional bodies. These include competence-based board exams for Anesthesiology Residents and for Paramedics. In addition, MSR conducts an intensive hands-on simulation-based training course that all medical school graduates must complete prior to starting their internship.

MSR was founded in 2001 by Dr. Amitai Ziv, a Pediatrician and Deputy Director of Sheba Medical Center. Dr. Ziv was first exposed to simulation-based training as a combat pilot in the Israeli Air Force.

International Activities

MSR is internationally recognized as a model in effective medical simulation training that addresses all fields of medicine. MSR serves as a "sister center" to other simulation centers, helping them to establish their own centers based on MSR's unique model and rich curriculum.

In response to critical national needs, the Israel Center for Medical Simulation (MSR) has designed specific hands-on training programs in the field of emergency preparedness for both conventional and non-conventional warfare.

Dr. Ziv has testified before the U.S. Congress on MSR's medical emergency preparedness programs and has lectured before the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Homeland Security.

MSR has trained many international groups of healthcare professionals in various simulation-based emergency preparedness training programs.

"The Israel Center for Medical Simulation (MSR) has in a very short time become an internationally recognized world leader in the art and science of medical simulation. It has brought sophistication and realism to simulation-based training and has made it an important tool in the education and training of all medical professionals in Israel."

—Kevin Lachapelle, MD
Director, McGill Medical Simulation Center
Montreal, Canada

"Methods developed and implemented by MSR are revolutionizing the manner in which physicians and allied health personnel are trained with a renewed focus on patient safety and demonstrated competency through training with simulated patients in a controlled multidisciplinary 'simulation center' environment. MSR has had an incalculable, truly worldwide impact."

—William F. Dunn, MD
Medical Director, Mayo Multidisciplinary Simulation Center
Minnesota, USA