What's new in SIMVANA Anesthesia

July 31 2024

Airway Fire

The Airway Fire is a new advanced simulation in SIMVANA that teaches you how to handle an airway fire situation in the OR.

Laryngospasm

The Laryngospasm simulation allows users to learn how to identify and resolve laryngospasms during patient emergence from anesthesia.

Improved Airway Mask and Circuit interactions

We’ve refined the interactions of the mask and anesthesia circuit in the operating room. It should now be easier to manipulate both components when attached to the patient.

New Lesson Planning and Assignment functionality on the portal

Our latest portal update introduces several exciting enhancements to improve your experience. You can now copy existing lesson plans to different cohorts, set due dates for assignments, and create certificates for completed assignments.

Additionally, a new explore page allows you to easily view and search all content as well as track your progression. This update also includes a remodel to the Student List, which now includes usage metrics for each student. Stay tuned for more updates and enjoy these new features!

July 9th 2024

Malignant Hyperthermia simulations and more!

The SIMVANA 2.6 update includes three new simulations to our learning content library!

Malignant Hyperthermia

Malignant Hyperthermia is a deadly issue that all anesthesia providers need to be prepared to handle. Our new malignant hyperthermia simulation walks you through the steps to identify and resolve malignant hypethermia.

Emergence Simulations

Our endotracheal and supraglottic ariway emergence simulations allow users to experience the tail end of a typical case and bring the patient back to consciousness.

Non-Playable Character Conversations

Our surgeon and nurse non-playable characters now talk during some simulations! Some of our advanced simulations require more than one set of hands. You can converse with the NPCs to give specific commands during our simulations to resolve complex issues you encounter.

Updated Simulation menu

Our growing library of simulations has required us to expand how we display our simulations in SIMVANA. You can browse simulations by different modules and categories.

Settings now found in pause menu

You can now easily change settings while in the operating room. Hit the pause button on your controller and you can access the settings menu. From here you can make changes without exiting the operating room.

Bug Fixes

We’ve also been busy fixing bugs that have popped up from user reports. We thank you all for reporting issues so we can get them fixed for everyone in a timely manner!

• Users can now seal mask on patient
• Made minor tweaks to existing lessons and simulations to make instructions more clear
• Updated simulation of lung volume when patient coughs
• Fixed collision issue with syringe tray and mayo stands
• Fixed issue where users is launched into air when pausing simulations in rare occasions

April 29th 2024

Lesson Planning is available to instructors

Instructors can now create customized lesson plans on their own on portal.simvana.com! Instructors can now create a customized list of learning content to match their curriculum. Instructors can assign custom lesson plans to each cohort within their institution.

Customized Lesson plans are displayed next to the main menu in the SIMVANA Anesthesia VR app once a student logs in.

With the new lesson planning feature, instructors can tailor their students SIMVANA learning path to meet the needs of their curriculum. Start creating your lesson plans now at http://portal.simvana.com

New Tutorial Lessons

The tutorial lessons have been updated in SIMVANA to cover new functionality, and are presented in a more cohesive fashion. If you are newer to SIMVANA, we highly recommend running through the tutorials before starting on the learning content.

Syringe Tray

Say good-bye to making multiple trips to the medicine cart during lessons and simulations in SIMVANA. With the new syringe tray, you can carry many syringes over to the IV pole, and keep them secured for later use.

Minor Fixes

This update also includes some small fixes to the Peripheral Nerve Stimulator and Lesson starting postitions to make your experience smoother.

April 12th 2024

Airway Management Lessons

This release brings 3 new lessons focusing on airway management. These lessons cover Endotracheal Intubation, Rapid Sequence Intubation, and Supraglottic Airway Placement. Each lessons covers where each procedure is used, and then walks through the lesson a step at a time through a series of interactive objectives.

Simulation updates and additions

This release of SIMVANA brings updates and additions to our simulations. Our existing Endotracheal Intubation, Rapid Sequence Intubation, and Supraglottic Airway placement sims have been updated to be more open ended and in line with our other simulations. 

We’ve also added a new Induction Complications simulation that give users an extra challenge of identifying and resolving issues in the OR while intubating a patient.

Lastly, we’ve added more variations to our worst break ever simulation to increase keep people on their toes in SIMVANA’s most difficult simulation.

Custom Lesson Planning

Instructors and Program Directors can now create custom lesson plans for their students using SIMVANA! Custom lesson plans show up directly in the headset, and allow instructors to create their own set of lessons to complete. Lesson plans can be customized for each cohort.

Reach out to our business development team to create your own lesson plan for your students!

Other Updates

In addition to our new learning content and custom lesson plans. This update of SIMVANA includes many smaller improvements and bug fixes:

• Surgeon and Scrub nurse avatars now animate to bring more life to the OR
• All video and image media displayed in the learning content is loaded locally. This greately reduces the amount of bandwidth needed for an optimal SIMVANA experience.
• Improvements to the patient physiology simulation allow for more realistic responses to a wider variety of user actions
• Patient breathing simulation has been updated to handle a wider variety of user actions.

February 12th 2024

Simulations

We are excited to roll out our new simulations feature for SIMVANA. This feature adds a whole new level of learning and simulation to the app. It’s a pretty big feature, so we’ve created a dedicated page that goes into detail about what it is: https://simvana.com/simulations

We have 5 simulations available with this release, and more planned to come out through 2024.

Improved Ventilator Machine Improvements

Our anesthesia machine ventilation logic has been updated to more accurately handle off nominal situations when connected to a patient.

Surgical site and NPC visuals

We’ve added our first iteration of surgical sites and Surgeon NPCs for some simulations in the operating room. Expect further improvements to to both these visual assets in future releases.

Janurary 19th 2024

We are thrilled to announce the upcoming release of SIMVANA, packed with new learning content and features designed to enhance the educational journey of SRNAs. Here’s what you can expect in the next update:

New Learning Content

This release includes 15 lessons on the Peripheral Nerve Stimulator, Neuromuscular Blockade Agents and Reversal Agents. Watch this video walkthrough of one of the new lessons:

Endotracheal Intubation

SIMVANA now supports functionality to perform an endotracheal intubation with a video laryngoscope! Also keep an eye on upcoming releases for scenarios based around intubation.

Lesson Rating

We love getting feedback from our users. SIMVANA now allows users to submit a 5-star rating for every lesson they complete in SIMVANA. We'll use your input to drive future decisions on learning content.

Height Adjustment for Sitting Users

If you are more comfortable sitting down while using VR, then head into the SIMVANA settings window and try out the Height Adjustment settings. This new feature allows you to manually set your height in SIMVANA so you can comfortably walk through content while sitting.

November 30th 2023

The SIMVANA 2.2 release is a small update that includes bug fixes and changes in preparation for larger changes coming soon.

New in this release:

• Mastery lesson videos are now stored and played locally
• Major performance overhaul. Many components and features in SIMVANA have been refined to be more performant in preparation for move to standalone headsets.
• Patient exhibits Fasciculation
• Reversal Agent Drugs are now in the drug cart.
• Neuromuscular Blocker Drugs are now in the drug cart.
• SIMVANA pauses when headset is removed from head.

Bug Fixes:

• CO2 values now only update on patient monitor if CO2 sensor is attached to patient.
• NIBP test now kicks off at start of every lesson.
• Scavenger system dial does not skip around when gripped.
• Fixed ambiguous fill value of Desflurane vaporizer in Desflurane learning lab.
• Fixed issue where anesthesia circuit doesn't attach to components once detached.
• Updated logging calls to server to provide better activity logs when attaching objects.
• Fixed issue where O2 Concentration warning persists on vent ui after warning resolves.
• Patient no longer blinks when paralyzed.
• Breathing mask no longer wiggles when face animates.

We are thrilled to announce the upcoming Fall 2023 release of SIMVANA coming September 29th!, packed with new learning content and features designed to enhance the educational journey of anesthesia providers. Watch the video or keep reading below to find out what's in this update!

20 New Mastery Lessons

We are introducing a series of mastery lessons to deepen your understanding of IV anesthetics and opioids. Delve into detailed lessons on key anesthetics such as Propofol, Etomidate, and Midazolam, exploring topics from introduction to specific effects on respiratory and cardiac systems. The opioids section covers essential drugs including Ketamine, Morphine, and Fentanyl, offering insights into their neurological, analgesic, and systemic effects.

These lessons are crafted to provide learners with a comprehensive understanding, preparing them to handle a wide array of scenarios in their journey to becoming proficient anesthesia providers.

Visit our lesson page to view all or our learning content.

Get hands on with LMA Placement

Dive deeper into the world of anesthesia with our enhanced LMA placement feature. This update not only allows you to gain practical experience in inserting a laryngeal mask airway through virtual reality simulation but also encourages exploration into more advanced anesthesia processes. Prepare for real-life scenarios as you master the induction process and learn to navigate complex anesthesia procedures in a safe, immersive, and dynamic learning environment.

Deeper Patient Simulation

We have upgraded our patient simulation code to initialize and simulate a broader range of patient vitals and metrics dynamically. This enhancement allows for a deeper and more realistic simulated OR experience, offering learners the opportunity to engage with patient scenarios that are closer to real-world situations. Learn to respond to a variety of patient conditions and understand the intricate dynamics of patient metrics in a safe, controlled, virtual environment.

Bug Fixes

In this release, we have addressed a variety of bugs to facilitate a smoother and more streamlined user experience. Our focus is to ensure that learners can concentrate on their anesthesia training without distractions. We are committed to continually refining SIMVANA, providing a platform where anesthesia providers can hone their skills with ease and confidence.

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