What's new in SIMVANA

June 2023

March 2023

48 Pharmacology Mastery Lessons

This release comes with 48 pharamacology lessons that covers inhaled anesthetics, as well as cardiac and anticholinergic drugs. Lessons cover drug basics, when they are used, and a short challenge scenario to let the user administer the drugs to bring patient vitals back to normal.

Drug Administration

The operating room now includes a stock medicine cart with an assortment of drug syringes. Users can select drugs and administer them to the patient via the IV line. SIMVANA's advanced physiology simulator will accurately respond to administered drugs.

New Operating Room Tools

The operating room is now equipped with a few new tools for SIMVANA users. Reach into the wrist pocket and pull out the new stethoscope. Users can hear the patient's heartbeat when placing the stethoscope on the patient's chest.

A nerve stimulator is available on the counter of the anesthesia machine. Users can pick up the stimulator and attach it to the patient's face or wrist and observe accurate patient responses to 4 different nerve stimulator tests.

Patient Vitals Chart

The new patient vitals chart tab on the tablet automatically tracks the patient's vitals throughout the simulation (thankfully you don't have to fill it out yourself).

Conscious Patient Freeplay Mode

You can now practice an induction sequence with SIMVANA's new conscious patient freeplay mode. Users can put a patient to sleep with inhaled anesthetics.

November 10th, 2022

New Mastery Lessons

This release of SIMVANA includes 10 new mastery lessons covering Uptake & Distribution of Inhaled anesthetics.

Topics include:

• Alveolar Concentration and Ventilation
• Blood-Gas Partition Coefficient
• Inspired Concentration
• Overpressurization
• Tissue Uptake

This set of 10 lessons is the first release of several that cover Inhaled Anesthetics. Future releases will come monthly starting in December, through early 2023.

Patient Physiology Panel

The patient physiology panel can be found in mastery lessons. This panel displays real-time metrics of the patient's physiology that are typically difficult if not impossible to measure in a real-world operating room.

Spontaneous Breathing

Students can learn to properly learn to assist ventilation with a spontaneously breathing patient. Patients will accurately respond to mistimed breathing bag interactions.

Spontaneous breathing is available in mastery lessons and in a dedicated new free-play scenario.

These metrics give students insight into how a patient’s physiology responds to their actions. Resulting in a better understanding of both what to do and why.

Other Updates

In addition to the new content and features listed above, this version of SIMVANA brings many bug fixes and minor quality-of-life improvements for users.

Limits on Patient Vitals - A scenario will end if the patient's vitals exceed safe limits

Enhanced user progression logging - SIMVANA will capture more detailed logs of user activity. Logs and user metrics will be viewable at portal.simvana.com mid-2023.

Performance improvements - Several improvements have been made to SIMVANA's rendering system to run more efficiently on all customer hardware.

July 6th, 2022

Instructor Camera

VR users now have more control when displaying SIMVANA on a TV. Users can position a camera in the OR so viewers have a better point of view when watching on a TV. Check out this video for more details: 

 

Vaporizer Refill

Vaporizers on the machine can now be refilled. Watch this video to see it in action:

April 18th, 2022

New Mastery Lesson Content

Release 1.3 now has mastery lessons for Machine Basics 1 - 3. The content covers the basics of anesthesia machine usage:

Machine Basics 1

• CO2 Absorber
• Electrical System
• Cylinder Gas Supply
• Pipeline Gas Supply
• Machine Basics 1 Mastery Challenge

Machine Basics 2

• Gas Delivery System
• Circle System Components
• Vaporizers
• Scavenging System
• Machine Basics 2 Mastery Challenge

Machine Basics 3

• Monitors & Resuscitation Equipment
• Oxygen Sensor Calibration
• Low Pressure Leak Test
• Positive Pressure Check
• Alarm Settings
• Ventilation System & Valve Check
• Machine Basics 3 Mastery Challenge

User Preference and Progression Tracking

User preferences and progression through learning content are now saved to the cloud. Data is saved and loaded between sessions, and can be synced between multiple computers.

Notable Bug Fixes

• MTP-4193 - Locomotion tutorials persist beyond menu level
• MTP-4190 - Vent Monitor PEEP does not affect circuit pressure
• MTP-4120 - Vaporizer fill caps do not stop at appropriate point when screwing them in
• MTP-3869 - CO2 value on patient monitor is not displayed in mmHg units
• MTP-3670 - Machine Checkout scenario can not be completed

March 22nd, 2022

Mastery Lesson Content

Release 1.2 contains our first batch of mastery lesson content "Machine Basics 1".

Machine Basics 1

• CO2 Absorber
• Electrical System
• Cylinder Gas Supply
• Pipeline Gas Supply
• Machine Basics 1 Mastery Challenge

Per User Licensing

SIMVANA has shifted from a hardware licensing to a user licensing model. This allows customers more freedom on where they install and use SIMVANA. Licensed users can login to any computer with SIMVANA installed and use it.

Cloud based lesson delivery

SIMVANA's learning content is now delivered from the cloud. New learning content can be added and used immediately without updating the software.

Updated onboarding and tutorials

Users can now get help when interacting with objects with a push of a button. When a user places their hand on an object and presses the A or X button, SIMVANA will walk them through a short tutorial on how to interact with the component.

Operating Room visual update

The visuals within the operating room have been overhauled to make things easier to see in VR. Some notable changes include:

• An updated patient monitor and vent monitor user interface
• Proper covers for patient
• Updated lighting

June 17th, 2021

This release focuses on improving the user experience of existing SIMVANA functionality. Feedback from our beta customers have brought to light some features and interactions that needed some refinement to make them easier to use for users new to SIMVANA. In addition to UX improvements, we have made some behind the scenes changes that set the groundwork for the upcoming Learning Labs feature.

New Features

• Improved Objective list on Tablet UI
• Refined hint icon rendering
• Fewer steps to get from launch to learning content
• Upgraded Unreal Engine to 4.26