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Inside Corporate Roundtable: Bridging Industry and Healthcare Simulation

• Deb Tauber • Season 3 • Episode 101

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Wendy LaGrange, VP and Managing Director at Wallcur (now part of 3B Scientific), reveals the vital role of the Corporate Roundtable within the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. This behind-the-scenes organization bridges the gap between industry partners and educators to advance healthcare simulation and improve patient outcomes.

• Corporate Roundtable serves as the corporate arm of SSH, bringing together approximately 50 companies 
• Started 15 years ago as a small committee, now playing a significant role in shaping healthcare simulation
• Members meet quarterly to align industry goals with SSH's strategic priorities
• Corporate Roundtable hosts workshops focused on research and development, connecting innovators with industry resources
• A new "shark tank" platform is being developed to help bring simulation innovations from concept to market
• Industry representation on the SSH Board of Directors ensures the corporate perspective influences policy and advocacy
• Competition transforms into collaboration when companies unite under the shared goal of advancing healthcare education

To learn more about the Corporate Roundtable or how your company can get involved, visit the SSH website or contact the SSH staff liaison for more information.


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Disclaimer/SimVS Ad/ Intro:

The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of anyone at Innovative Sim Solutions or our sponsors. Thanks to SimVS for sponsoring this week's episode. The new SimVS iV Infusion Pump Simulator is the first to market in this critical learning area, with great realism and advanced features like simulation, meta orders, gamified med arrows and more. SimVS IV significantly reduces the burden for training proper IV administration when compared to refurbished pumps. SimVS IV helps students develop the confidence needed in a safe environment before facing the challenges of modern health care. To learn more, visit www. simvs. com. Welcome to The Sim Cafe, a podcast produced by the team at Innovative Sim Solutions, edited by S House y Ed H Join our host, Deb Tauber, and co-host Jerrod Jeffries as they sit down with subject matter experts from across the globe to reimagine clinical education and the use of simulation. So pour yourself a cup of relaxation, sit back, tune in and learn something new from The Sim Cafe.

Deb Tauber:

Welcome to another episode of The Sim T Cafe, and today, j and I are here with Wendy LaGrange, and this episode is going to take a little bit of a different direction. We're going to talk about the influence that the corporate roundtable with the Society for Simulation and Healthcare has. First of all, Wendy, why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

Wendy LaGrande:

Absolutely. Thanks for having me. Deb and Jerrod, ,Reall ,Really appreciate it. Great opportunity to be here and talk to the simulation community A little bit about myself. I am the vice president and managing director at Walker. Walker is newly part of the 3B scientific family of companies. I've been with Walker for going on 13 years now. Walker to tell a little bit about Walker we are the originator of training, medications and products for clinical simulation and education. We were actually one of the first companies to emerge in the area of clinical simulation. We were founded 50 years ago by a nurse educator who was actually one of the original Math for Meds author, a text that's still used in clinical education today. Our brand is Practi. We focus on providing high quality, true to life, realistic designs for medical training to increase student and professional readiness and cut down on medication administration errors. It's really our focus is in on simulated medications and on medication administration training.

Deb Tauber:

Thank you. I remember when you were first starting in it it was you know. It was very exciting to see a new player on the black.

Jerrod Jeffries:

And you also mentioned the 3B Scientific. That was relatively recent.

Wendy LaGrande:

Yes, yeah so in September of 2023, Walker proudly became part of the 3B Scientific family of companies Very exciting. 3b is a leading manufacturer in medical simulation products and anatomical models for healthcare education. They're a worldwide company. They've been around for many years, Started in Hamburg, Germany, and they've grown globally. We have affiliates in I think it's 20, some odd countries around the world and really one of the leading providers in clinical simulation and education and anatomical modeling.

Deb Tauber:

Good Glad you're happy.

Wendy LaGrande:

It's wonderful. By joining forces with 3B, it really allowed Walker to further empower healthcare professionals and educators with cutting edge training solutions. The synergies between our two companies are really evident in our shared dedication to improving patient outcomes with effective training, so it's been a great marriage for the two companies. Good, yeah, very exciting, yeah, really really exciting for us to expand ourselves both domestically and globally in clinical education and simulation.

Deb Tauber:

Right Now. Why don't you give us an overview of the corporate roundtables, especially what it is for those listeners who are unfamiliar with it? So break it down, please.

Wendy LaGrande:

Yeah, absolutely so. In addition to my role at Walker, I actually served on the executive committee for the corporate roundtable as both the chairperson for two years, the vice chair for a year and now I'm the immediate past chair. I'll get into a little bit about what corporate roundtable is in just a minute but just to give perspective, I also had the privilege to serve on the SSH board of Directors, which, as the corporate roundtable chair, you are given a director at large position on the SSH Board of Directors. So I worked under Barry Eisenberg and Jane Smitten as presidents in the SSH Board of Directors, which was an incredible privilege. As I'm sure you're aware, they're both two very prolific people within the world of clinical simulation and really an honor to work under an incredible board.

Wendy LaGrande:

With SSH I'm sure everybody's very familiar SSH is our affiliate organization that basically are our association that really serves members in fostering education, professional development and advancing research and innovation in clinical healthcare and simulation. It really promotes the profession of healthcare simulation through standards and ethics and champions healthcare simulation through advocating sharing, facilitating and collaborating. That's really the focus of SSH. So as such and they also put on IMSH and SimOps and the big simulation events so in terms of Corporate Roundtable. Corporate Roundtable is an organization within SSH that was developed to foster collaboration between the industry partners so corporations, manufacturers, distributors, et cetera and SSH and the society itself. It's a platform that serves as a vital link between the healthcare simulation industry and SSH, promoting innovation and advancing the field of healthcare simulation. So we are the corporate arm under the Society for Simulation and Healthcare.

Wendy LaGrande:

There are benefits to being part of Corporate Roundtable as members the corporate members and they include a lot of the major players within simulation. So you know companies like Mind3D, scientific, Walker, Laird al, Gamard, SIMl ab ab ab, different companies like that that are all involved Elevate Healthcare. You know those companies. They could be mannequin companies AI ai companies, hands-on tactile training companies v vr companies all involved in Corporate Roundtable.

Wendy LaGrande:

The benefits of being part of Corporate Roundtable outside of just exhibiting it at IMSH, is, you know they're great networking opportunities. Members can connect with other industry leaders, ssh executives and, fostering that type of relationship Influence, we can participate and shape the future of healthcare simulation by providing input on SSH initiatives and industry standards. The visibility corporate roundtable members get visibility within SSH community, access to the expertise of the members that are part of SSH and then just the ability for us to have a dialogue and have equal representation and participation with SSH as industry partners. So it's really a fantastic dual platform that allows industry to provide feedback to SSH and the education clinical education community, as well as to take that feedback to SSH and the education clinical education community, as well as to take that feedback from that community and bring it back to our manufacturing and product development.

Jerrod Jeffries:

And when was all this started, Wendy?

Wendy LaGrande:

So it was started. The corporate roundtable was started about 15 years ago and it really gained a lot of traction. In the last five to seven years is really when kind of the development of this has really gone full force. It started out as just a so within SSH they have committees and task force. It was started as a small committee to just kind of bring in some feedback and in the last really 10 years it's really grown into a really big part of the overall SSH association.

Jerrod Jeffries:

I mean in that 15 slash 7 years. How has it evolved from what it was to maybe the adolescent stage, to now more of the mature one?

Wendy LaGrande:

Yeah, absolutely so. The vision behind Corporate Roundtable was to foster industry collaboration and facilitate the dialogue and cooperation between SSH and key industry stakeholders. When it first began its primary focus was on, you know, ssh was really focused on the education side of clinical simulation, so setting standards for accreditation, credentialing, advocacy. But as a society grew, there really grew a need to better communicate and collaborate with the industry partners that participate in IMSH and in providing products for the community. But it was fairly limited in terms of the industry's participation in the society, to just the main conference and the main conferences and exhibiting and selling the products to those market channels. So the CR was developed to broaden that relationship and create a partnership between industry and society.

Wendy LaGrande:

And that's really where we are today, which is really fantastic to see.

Deb Tauber:

It's fantastic and it's really needed, because we need to bridge those gaps and take from industry what you guys have to offer, which is a lot.

Wendy LaGrande:

There is as much need for that duality as there is for the education and training itself, Because if industry is not creating the right products or we're not meeting the needs of the training industry, then it handicaps both sides. You know, really handicaps clinical education. So we need to have that kind of platform for that dialogue, to have that knowledge exchange between the two entities.

Deb Tauber:

It's been fascinating to watch the shifts over the last couple years from mere mannequins to so much more with the virtual reality, mm.

Wendy LaGrande:

Exactly, yeah, it's been such a fascinating you know, growth curve that we've all seen simulation on in the last, you know, 10 to 15 years and especially as we went through, you know, events like COVID, where we saw a mass exodus of practitioners and now the need to really accelerate that clinical training and allow for the advancement of healthcare through education in modalities that actually meet that need, that kind of accelerated need and the ability to utilize simulation.

Wendy LaGrande:

When people couldn't be at the patient bedside and couldn't do clinical rounds when they were going through their education processes, simulation was a huge part of allowing that process to still go forward and giving those learners the accessibility to the education platforms that they needed to be involved in, because we all can't just learn in a classroom, especially in clinical education.

Wendy LaGrande:

So simulation really gave that opportunity for those learners to have hands-on practice when they couldn't be by patient bedside. So that's been great. It's really important in terms of what Corporate Roundtable is doing to shape the industries and why it's important for companies to be involved in platforms like Corporate Roundtable. We have, I think, about 50 members right now within the community but that platform for knowledge exchange and sharing insights and best practices and emerging trends in healthcare simulation technology and methodology is and best practices and emerging trends in healthcare simulation technology and methodology is an ongoing process and something we need all people within industry to participate in, not just mannequin companies or not just people who are making those task trainers but especially now, with AI and VR becoming such an important part of the clinical education and simulation process.

Deb Tauber:

And how can members get involved if they want to get involved with the corporate round table.

Wendy LaGrande:

So the corporate round table is open to any corporation or anybody who's really in the simulation industry. We have a liaison within SSH. So within SSH there's always for all of the different committees and groups there's a staff member that's part of the SSH, that works for SSH, and then there are liaisons like myself who are the liaison between the board of directors and those different committees so they can contact me. Actually, I can provide the information as one of the executive committee members or Olivia Fleener is her married name now the one who runs IMSH she actually can provide any information to any corporations that are interested in and you know I can provide that information to you, deb, so you can share that with your listeners too. There's also information on the SSH website about Corporate Roundtable. You can go in and you can look up the information there information to join, what the benefits are and what that looks like for any company that's interested are and what that looks like for any company that's interested, because you mentioned that there's 50-ish involved.

Jerrod Jeffries:

How's the interaction or how's that involvement look like on an annual basis, or is it more heavier at the conference side, or is it, and you also mentioned? Of course there's the SimOps. There's the new website that just came out as well. Obviously, the majority of people know of IMSH, but how's the frequency and what's the tempo of the interaction between the different organizations?

Wendy LaGrande:

Yeah, so we actually have four meetings a year. They're quarterly. We meet in person at IMSH. It's about a two hour meeting at IMSH, which is the time that we actually kind of go through our goals from the previous year, set the goals for the upcoming year, about what we really want to achieve with Corporate Roundtable. Corporate Roundtable's goals are always based around the SSH strategic priorities. So there's a strategic plan and strategic priorities within SSH and they involve advocacy five areas of focus advocacy, research and innovation, education and learning, credentialing and organizational sustainability and growth. So Corporate Roundtable always focuses their goals on around those five strategic priorities. So we set priorities that really help advance that strategic plan and priorities for the association and for industry as well. So we meet quarterly. We meet in person at IMSH and then we have a quarterly virtual meeting with all the members to kind of review the goals, review different tasks surrounding those goals and the different plans that we have For this year.

Wendy LaGrande:

We actually started last year. One of the things that we put together was a workshop, an industry workshop that was specific to research and development, and we're actually going to continue that going forward each year. We got such great feedback. We had panelists such as Ryan Rivera and Harua Kuda and Barry Eisenberg and John Laerdal, really talking about the R&D process and how we could create a dialogue between industry and the medical and education community to talk about how products are developed and how feedback and mechanisms could actually be created so that we could continue to provide the best possible products and do what was needed in the clinical education industry from a research and development perspective to meet the needs of the industry.

Deb Tauber:

Very interesting.

Wendy LaGrande:

Yeah, it was really an exciting workshop. We had phenomenal. We had 15 amazing panelists. We had a great attendance. Very interesting actually. A it's a pathway between SimVentors and the show floor. So you've got these people who come in with SimVentors and they're, you know, typically people who really have no idea how to launch a product or do anything, but they've got these great ideas. And who better to help foster and facilitate that? But the industry partners. So Corporate Roundtable is working with Olivia and with SSH to really do that and the technology committee of SSH to really develop a great platform, sort of a shark tank platform, to be able to help foster that kind of development and innovation.

Deb Tauber:

Now I think you might have touched on this, but can you speak to some of the most impactful initiatives or projects that the CR has been involved with recently?

Wendy LaGrande:

Yeah, absolutely. Initiatives or projects that the CR has been involved with recently yeah, absolutely. So some of the things that we've done you know we participate in the virtual learning labs that are put on during the summer to introduce clinical educators to different products and technologies that are available to them. We do, you know a lot of them are participating with the what's new in sim showcase at i They're they're able to do learning labs at imsh i introduce products and train practitioners and and educators on their different training modalities, and then also the r&d workshop that I mentioned and this kind of new process that we're working on. One of the biggest that just happened was the corporate roundtable was really involved and prolific in the white paper that was about technology and simulation. That was spearheaded by Haru Okuda and Ryan Rivera. Ryan was actually the chair of the corporate roundtable prior to me and on the board of directors, and out of that came the white paper that now we've about to basically go to publication on. So really about the advancements of technologies in simulation.

Deb Tauber:

Exciting.

Wendy LaGrande:

Very exciting. Yeah, really looking forward to seeing that actually get published and be available by IMSH of 2026.

Deb Tauber:

Now, how does the corporate roundtable influence industry standards, best practices and policy decisions, and do you have any examples of that?

Wendy LaGrande:

directors, and that's a really, really impactful, important thing to hold, to be able to have a seat at the table and have a voice and be a mouthpiece for industry in the board of directors, who, ultimately, is representing the society right? So that's a really incredible thing. That was just instituted a few years back and it allows for corporate roundtable and industry to be directly involved in the initiatives of the society, which include government advocacy, accessibility to research, accessibility to regulatory agencies and things like that. So recent initiatives by the board have been to work with government specifically to increase awareness and funding for clinical simulation. So for there to be industry representative on the board of directors is really an impactful way that we can actually continue to influence best practices and policy decisions.

Jerrod Jeffries:

So I want to go back a little bit to the innovation and scientific research as well. So you mentioned I think there were 15 individuals that were at that R&D piece, and then also you have a potential of a SIM vendors platform. That might be evolving, we can see in the future, but what role does the CR really play in that, as well as maybe the broader industry with everything?

Wendy LaGrande:

Sure. So the workshop that I mentioned, the R&D workshop, was actually facilitated and conducted by the Corporate Roundtable. So myself and Dr Yue Dong, who is actually on the board of directors and works at, I believe, the Mayo Clinic, he and I got together basically through the board of directors and he kind of came to me with questions about, well, how does industry create products and how do you guys do your R&D channels? And what if I have a need that's not being met, who would I talk to? And so we really that's kind of opened the dialogue and I went back to our industry partners and I said, hey, there's a disconnect here between these two entities and we need to create a platform where there is a dialogue about understanding the R&D channels and product development and what is really needed in the medical profession and in the clinical education professions specific to simulation. And it was an amazing thing to see how many people were so willing to be involved in that. I mean we had Barry Eisenberg, Dr Barry Eisenberg, Hiru Dr Hiru Dr. Hiru Okuda, John Ryan Rivera, john Laerdal President Neil Weber, president of Laerdal Director Peter McKay, director of Doug at 3B, doug Lynn from Loomis, lynn Welsh Anna Lucid Labs, anna Lynn from Limbs and Things myself. We were all part of this panel where we had, you know, people who are medical practitioners, who are very involved in simulation, as well as people from the industry, and then people were able to come and ask questions and say, hey, if I've got an idea, how would I do this? What are the things I need to do? And it really created this great dialogue and everybody was so excited about it that we said, okay, we need to formalize this.

Wendy LaGrande:

It was, you know, it was our initial launch at this past IMSH, and now, as we move into the next year, we're really trying to formalize it a little bit more and allow us to expand that platform and have people bring ideas Out of that grew.

Wendy LaGrande:

You know we have this.

Wendy LaGrande:

The SimVentors has been going on at IMSH for quite some time and it's a big part of the show floor, the exhibit hall floor, and you can have you can have anybody who's trying to launch a product or introduce an idea can come and be part of SimVentors.

Wendy LaGrande:

But there's a big difference between that and then these big companies that are exhibiting at IMSH, and so this new idea is to create like a bridge between those two where companies can take a look at these ideas and really foster and develop and mentor some of these individuals who bring these ideas into simulation. So we're kind of taking this workshop and then putting it into practice and potentially creating this kind of shark tank scenario where people can pitch their ideas and really come and talk about. They had something called Pitch Room last year but not a lot of people knew about it. So we're kind of trying to take that idea and really grow it and allow industry to see what those ideas are out there and where the gaps are and then take that and really build on that and create products that meet that need.

Deb Tauber:

So will you have the Pitch Room this year as well?

Wendy LaGrande:

You know they're working on right now. We're working on what kind of the idea behind why that was done and what they're planning to do. It's all kind of in the development phase right now. So we're kind of trying to take what Corporate Roundtable did and that idea and that workshop and what they did with the pitch room and SimVentors and formalize it and combine it a little bit better and in a way that they can have a real impact on both the clinical education side and the association side, as well as the industry side.

Deb Tauber:

Now, how do you see Corporate Roundtable addressing emerging trends?

Wendy LaGrande:

So I mean basically by expanding Corporate Roundtable and the society. That's really what we need to do. We need to just continue to grow the participation in Corporate Roundtable and the society so we can further take opportunities through this platform to work together and create exposure to clinical simulation. That's what we're all trying to do, because the challenge of clinical educators and how to advocate for them through research and access to funding that'll have a major impact on clinical education and training and thus better healthcare overall and better patient outcomes. So that's really what we're all trying to do. So by growing both the CR platform, the corporate roundtable platform, the industry involvement and the association itself, it's going to create better awareness for both the industry and the healthcare profession and the clinical simulation profession so that we can actually have an even bigger impact than we're already having on healthcare.

Deb Tauber:

Now, when did you have like a favorite part of being in the corporate round table? What was your any good memories of it?

Wendy LaGrande:

I do so. I got to know some amazing people within the industry, and a lot of people within business are in competition with each other, right, so you could have a competitor out there that you may not know personally. You know their products and you know they're your competitor. But when you get into corporate round table, you're all equal. You are there to further healthcare education and you're not necessarily competitors, but you bring together ideas and you talk about our industry as a whole and you create camaraderie and friendship. You know, and healthy competition is good for everybody and it's a way for us to actually all be on the same page for the end game, which is really improving healthcare. And then I'll be totally honest being able to be part of the board of directors was an incredible privilege and one of my favorite parts. And working with people who have been in this industry for so long Don Shokin, barry Eisenberg, haru Akuda I mean these incredible people who I've learned so much from and been able to just gain so much personally as well as professionally.

Deb Tauber:

Fantastic. Thank you so much. Are there any words that you'd like to leave our listeners with today?

Wendy LaGrande:

Yeah, absolutely. This was so exciting for me because we're a big podcast family. I was laughing because my kids, you know they're like are you going?

Jerrod Jeffries:

o J.

Wendy LaGrande:

R. I said no, I'm going on the podcast. It's amazing. I'm going on Joe Rogan. I said no, I'm going on Deb Tauber's podcast.

Jerrod Jeffries:

It's amazing, I'm going on, s.

Wendy LaGrande:

e. I can't wait, so I can't wait till we grow Sim Cafe to be as big as you know, big listenership as Joe Rogan, so that we can bring more awareness to how important clinical simulation is and clinical training. You know there just, there's not many things that are more important than our health and taking care of people.

Wendy LaGrande:

And that's really what we do in, you know, clinical education, whether it's from the practitioner side, the educator side or the industry side. So I'm really, really looking forward to seeing how this grows on that higher bell curve even in more in the next 10 years. So I really appreciate you guys bringing awareness and bringing this platform to so many people.

Deb Tauber:

Thank you. Thank you for the kind words. We really appreciate that.

Wendy LaGrande:

Love getting to know both of you guys over the years. We've known each other for many years and look forward to a lot of fun IMSH and SimOps and different opportunities to get together again. So many more to come and thanks for the time.

Jerrod Jeffries:

Been a pleasure.

Wendy LaGrande:

Great to see you. Thanks so much. Thank you and happy simulating. All right, you too.

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