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ATEC Game Wins First Place at Medical Simulation Conference

GLIMPSE

GLIMPSE offers situational learning through conversations with the game's characters. Its players role play as medical professionals and must select appropriate responses to other nurses or physicians.

A collaborative game-based simulation project between UT Dallas, UT Arlington and Baylor Scott & White Health that seeks to improve physician-nurse communication received first place at a serious games competition at the 14th Annual International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH). 

The project also won fourth place overall out of approximately 60 entries in the Technology Innovations Abstract Category at the conference.

A panel of judges selected GLIMPSE (A Game to Learn Important Communications Methods for Patient Safety Enhancement) for top honors in the Faculty Category of the IMSH Serious Games and Virtual Environments Showcase and Arcade, the world’s largest conference on simulation in health care.

Dr. Marjorie Zielke

Dr. Marjorie Zielke

A UT Dallas team led by Dr. Marjorie Zielke, assistant professor of Arts and Technology and director of ATEC’s Virtual Humans and Synthetic Societies Lab, developed the game in collaboration with Dr. Mary E Mancini, associate dean and chair for undergraduate nursing programs at UT Arlington; Dr. Yan Xiao, Baylor’s director of patient safety research; and Dr. Susan Houston, Baylor’s director of nursing research.

“The overall track record we have with our game-based simulations and the international recognition we are receiving is very gratifying, particularly when the subject matter is as challenging as it is in GLIMPSE,” Zielke said. “As always, we owe our continuing success to the project team and the great faculty, staff and students involved in these important research projects. The encouragement and support we get from our administration is also critical.”

Mancini is the project’s principal investigator.

“Our hope is that this project will enhance patient safety and, ultimately, improve patient outcomes,” Mancini said. “Being honored by the judges at this year’s International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare tells us that the virtual learning environment we’ve built is among the very best in terms of content and design.”

Dr. Katie White, secretary for the Serious Games and Virtual Environments Interest Group that organizes the IMSH competition, praised the quality of the entries.

“The entries for this year’s arcade were technologically sophisticated and innovative in the way that they combined gaming concepts and clinical teaching,” White said. “It’s great to see the game developers improve their products from year to year and to see the growth of the arcade into a fun place for IMSH attendees to be introduced to serious games as a teaching tool.”

The overall track record we have with our game-based simulations and the international recognition we are receiving is very gratifying, particularly when the subject matter is as challenging as it is in GLIMPSE.

Dr. Marjorie Zielke,
assistant professor of Arts and Technology and director of ATEC’s Virtual Humans and Synthetic Societies Lab

The project, funded by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, started with the development of a communications curriculum based on a research study involving physicians and nurses at two Baylor Scott & White hospitals. The goal is to improve the patient experience by improving communication between physicians and nurses. Results of evaluation of the game will be made available later this year when insights and effects of the game are analyzed on a deeper level for education, behavioral changes and improved learning potential.

“A great deal of health care errors are due to miscommunication between physicians and nurses, which can present patient safety issues,” said Houston. “The nurses and physicians who played the game were extremely supportive. Overall, the collegiality and collaboration has been wonderful in an effort to pull off this three-year project. Ideally, we will see the long-term effects, not only just in the results of this study, but through a marked decrease in health care errors that occur due to miscommunication.”

GLIMPSE also was selected in December 2013 as a finalist in another serious games contest at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), the world’s largest modeling and simulation conference. Game-based simulations developed in the VHSS Lab have been recognized with nine major awards since 2010.

Media Contact: The Office of Media Relations, UT Dallas, (972) 883-2155, [email protected].

Tagged: A&H research