Maine chooses VRpatients for statewide virtual simulation EMS training

Partnership becomes company's first statewide initiative

AUGUSTA, ME., — VRpatients, the industry's only pro-level virtual sim creator for EMS & Nurse Educators, announced it has partnered with the State of Maine to provide immersive simulative training to its EMS clinicians throughout the state and seven Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Training Centers. This is being made possible with federal grant dollars made available through a collaboration with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Maine is very excited about our partnership with VRpatients to expand virtual reality continuing education opportunities for EMS clinicians throughout the state, especially for high-consequence, low-incidence clinical presentations involving adult patients," said Sam Hurley, Maine EMS Director. "Virtual reality training, as has been evidenced by Maine EMS’ existing pediatric virtual reality programming, gives EMS clinicians a unique immersive experience where they can interact with, treat, and observe clinical changes to virtual patients in a zero-risk environment," he added.

Maine uses statewide EMS protocols developed by the Maine EMS Medical Direction & Practices Board for the care of patients in the pre-hospital environment. The state requires all EMS clinicians to review and update these protocols every two years. VRpatients incorporated these protocols into ten customized clinical case scenarios that educate providers on how to properly manage high risk, low occurring emergencies in the field. The application's built-in case authoring tool allows instructors to customize any case, or build new ones as the state's requirements evolve, without any additional cost.

VRpatients’ simulations and avatars are physiologically responsive to successful interventions, incorrect treatments, or inaction by the user, and allow the practitioner to repeat a scenario as many times as needed until mastery is achieved. Educators can observe the practitioner's progress in real time, and objectively grade performance with the application's built-in grading rubric.

"We are so excited to help Maine exceed their competency standards and give student users an unparalleled simulation experience," said Anne Montera, Director of Nursing Programs for VRpatients. "This means our product will impact the level of care and service provided in every corner of the state, and really, there is nothing more important," she added.

VRpatients will be rotated through Maine's six regions via mobile sim lab cases on request, with a total of 20 deployable headsets. The program officially launched March 1, 2023.

VRpatients is also available as a web-based application with no headset required. Subscription-based options are flexible based on the organization's need. Visit www.vrpatients.com for more information or to schedule a live demo.

About VRpatients:

Founded in 2018, VRpatients is a physiologically based critical thinking education application that immerses a healthcare provider into medical scenarios, allowing them to assess, diagnose and treat simulative patients. Available through a web-based platform or through a full clinical simulation experience using a virtual reality headset, VRpatients allows providers to test and expend their clinical skills without compromising patient care. It's real life training without real life consequences.

About Maine EMS:

The Maine Bureau of Emergency Medical Services (Maine EMS) sits within the Maine Department of Public Safety, and it's responsible for promoting and providing a comprehensive and effective emergency medical services system to ensure optimum patient care. In coordination with the Board of Emergency Medical Services, the Bureau coordinates and integrates all state activities concerning emergency medical services and the overall planning, evaluation, coordination, facilitation, and regulation of emergency medical services systems.

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