Immersive Design Systems at Boston Children’s Hospital

Mark your calendar! IDS's Jeremiah Egolf and Eric Dennis will speak at this year's RAPID + TCT in Boston. The event is right around the corner, taking place April 13–16 at the Thomas M. Menino Convention & Exhibition Center. They’ll share a decade of practical, hard-won lessons learned about in-house fabrication of pediatric surgical simulators and anatomical tools using a range of 3D printing approaches. They'll discuss what’s worked, what they’ve refined, and what they’d do differently. Be sure to catch their presentation: “The State of Our Art: Leveraging 3D Printing to Develop Custom Pediatric Surgical Simulators. All details linked below. https://lnkd.in/gfgTvtNX

We’re looking forward to joining colleagues from around the world at IPSSW 2026 and contributing to several important conversations about systems simulation, human factors, systems change, and team culture. Our Boston Children's Hospital team is especially honored to share an oral presentation, “Building a Human Factors and Systems Simulation Service Line and Dashboard,” featuring work from Mirette Dubé, Myrna Chan-MacRae, Gabriel Arato, Kyle Martin, MPH, PMP, David Lieber, Sarah Henderson, MHA, CPHQ, Rebecca Williams, Dayna Downing, MBA, MHA, FSSH, and Jennifer L Arnold. In addition, Mirette and Jennifer will join friends and collaborators on multiple workshops focused on using simulation to accelerate quality improvement and implementation, as well as applying positive psychology principles in debriefing to help strengthen team culture. Check the International Pediatric Simulation Society's 2026 conference website for all of our session details and to sign up! https://ipss.org/Schedule We’re grateful to be part of a field that continues to ask how simulation and human factors can do more to test and improve complex systems, improve safety, quality, and design. #IPSSW #HealthcareSimulation #HumanFactors #SystemsSimulation #QualityImprovement #BostonChildrensHospital #ImmersiveDesignSystems

Excited to highlight the incredible work of our Training & Performance team as we gear up for this weekend’s SimDiscovery Teddy Bear Clinic 🧸 This event is all about creating a fun, safe, and approachable healthcare experience for kids and families, helping build comfort and familiarity with medical environments through play. Looking forward to seeing it all come together on March 28th at Boston Children's Hospital. 💙 Erin Graham Brianna OConnell

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to connect with us at #SMFM26. Mike Silver represented Immersive Design Systems, showcasing our fetal simulators and sharing how simulation can support fetal care teams. Great job!

Jeff Durney, CPHFH and Mirette Dubé are leading a workshop at the Academic Pediatric Association’s 15th Annual Quality Improvement Research Conference on April 24th in Boston. Their session, “Fix the System, Not the People: Using Human Factors to Strengthen QI,” will walk through practical human factors tools you can use to spot system-level risks, strengthen recommendations, and build safer, more reliable care by designing for real work, not perfect work. Full conference details linked below! https://lnkd.in/gDzhDXvT #QI #HFSD #HCSim Boston Children's Hospital

Preparing to open a new health care facility is a team effort! Systems simulation testing and embedded human factors play a key role in ensuring preparedness of systems, processes, the environment, people, and their tasks, tools, and technology. Our Human Factors and Systems Design, along with our amazing partners, collaborators, clinical and non-clinical teams, and our IDS project manager, planned and implemented extensive systems testing for our new Needham location. What did this look like? -             23 day in the life in situ simulation walkthroughs -             11 tabletop activities -             12 emergency response insitu systems simulations -             588 participants -             >84 stakeholders Together, we proactively identified opportunities for improvement to ensure the highest level of safety, quality, efficiency, and experience when Boston Children’s Needham opened. Systems simulation and debriefing, along with the science and applications of human factors, are powerful proactive approaches to testing and improving complex systems, environments, and processes of care! #SystemsSimulationTesting #HumanFactors #Proactive #Preparedness Sarah Henderson, MHA, CPHQ, Rebecca Williams, Michelle Midura, MBA, Mirette Dubé, Myrna Chan-MacRae, David Lieber, Jennifer L Arnold

Documenting a resuscitation asks clinicians to track the patient, the team, and the clock while entering precise data in real time. If the documentation tool doesn’t fit the work, people will work around it, and that’s where risk creeps in. This paper, led by author Susan Biesbroek, is a useful reminder that in high-stakes moments like a code, the goal isn’t to “train people to use the EHR better.” It’s to test whether the system, workflow, and documentation tool actually hold up under pressure. Big congratulations to Susan and all the authors, including several of our colleagues (Mirette Dubé, Jennifer L Arnold, Myrna Chan-MacRae, Dan Kats, Lauren Coogle, Melanie Swenson, and Jonathan Hron), for this work. “Using Human Factors and Systems Simulation to Optimize the Usability of a Code Documentation Tool” is linked below. https://lnkd.in/geyaSbNX

Big thanks to the PACaRI team for the shout-out and for trusting IDS with your learners. Huge thanks as well to Gabriel Arato and Dayna Downing, MBA, MHA, FSSH for leading a hands-on session that gave students a supportive, realistic space to practice clinical decision-making, communication, and teamwork. 👏🎉

Please join us in welcoming Erin Graham, our new Manager of Training and Performance. Erin brings more than a decade of experience leading healthcare simulation programs across academic and hospital settings. At The State University of New York's (SUNY) Upstate Medical University, she established and led the university’s simulation program, overseeing an 8,600 sq. ft. center and supporting interprofessional education for 1,500+ learners annually. She later advanced to Director of Operations, guiding simulation strategy and educational initiatives across five health colleges and hospital partners. Erin is dual certified by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) for CHSE and CHSOS, with expertise spanning curriculum design, faculty development, and simulation operations. In her new role, Erin will help strengthen IDS training programs, support systems, and team performance across simulation modalities. Welcome Erin!

There’s readiness, then there’s hospital-opening readiness. Big thanks to our IDS team, and to our Boston Children's Hospital and Needham community partners, for the hard work that goes into making opening day, and every day, the safest, most comfortable care possible.