Remy Roe - How One Medic Turned Trauma Into Training That Saves Lives

We trace Remy Roe’s journey from combat medic to simulation leader and researcher, exploring how trauma, mentorship, and mission shaped a career devoted to equity and authentic training. We share practical ways to build relationships, reduce hierarchy, and design scenarios that change outcomes.

• military roots and simulation origin
• mentors pushing ideas into action
• minority stress theory and equity lens
• authentic patient representation in scenarios
• relationships over hierarchy in sim teams
• mass casualty experience driving purpose
• building a burn task trainer and new course
• privilege, access, and responsibility in training
• community, committees, and finding your tribe

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Transcript

Deb Tauber 0:54

Welcome to The Sim Cafe. Today we're here with uh one of my favorite people uh Remy Rowe. And Jerrod's gonna try and make an we had uh an opportunity to record live at IMSH with Remy and unfortunately we had some technical difficulties and the interview did not record properly. So we're gonna uh try and kind of pick up where we uh where we left. And I think one of the things that was about my favorite thing about being at IMSH was being with our friends and being in our tribe. So Remy, why don't you um go ahead and tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and your journey, and then we can just continue and have a conversation.

Remy’s Path From Military To Academia

Remy Roe 1:35

Yeah, for sure. Um thanks for having me back on. I was on, what was it two, three years ago now, maybe? It's been a while. And uh the journey, the journey has continued. So I guess for um for anyone who isn't caught up, my name's Remy. My background with simulation originates in the military. So I spent 15 years uh in tactical medicine, special operations combat medic. At the conclusion of my career, I was the lead instructor writer at the largest medical simulation training center in the Department of Defense, which was a really cool opportunity. And I was there uh writing PLI and curriculum for future Army medics. And right about that time I retired. Uh I spent the last four and a half years at Stanford University School of Medicine, where I was a simulation technology specialist and a lecturer at the Center for Immersive and Simulation-based learning, where I was under the tutelage and mentorship of Dr. Susan Eller and Dr. David Gaba, just two incredible hearts and minds in the field. And then after my time at Stanford, I got an offer to be where I am now, just to separate myself from my position. I'll just say I'm I'm now in a in a hospital group on the East Coast. Uh and I'm now in Florida, where I am the regional manager of GME simulation. So if you are a resident uh anywhere in regional Florida that I am in, chances are I somehow have a hand in your in your education through simulation, um, experience-based learning, or through uh research mentorship. I'm also faculty for some of my programs and I help mentor residents in doing research.

Deb Tauber 3:25

Thank you. Thank you for your service.

Remy Roe 3:28

Uh oh, thank you.

Deb Tauber 3:29

Yeah.

Remy Roe 3:30

It's so awkward. I was telling Jared last time we talked, like, the worst guy you know is like, you're welcome. Like, there's no, it's such a hard thing to respond to. I always think he always to give people the uh the Chick-fil-A, like my pleasure, you know.

Deb Tauber 3:45

Right. But it's, you know, you've you've given a lot and you've had some experiences there that have led you to this role that you maybe you want to share with with us today.

Turning Ideas Into Action In Simulation

Remy Roe 3:57

Yeah. Experiences that led me to this role. More often than not, my experiences have been the kind of ongoing theme of my career has been to suffer the fate of a man with a good idea. I've always been kind of a kind of a smart mouth. To this day, I have a lot of mentors that give me much more grace than I should have. Uh and I'll I'll point things out or say, you know, what about this? So why don't we try that? But I get told, well, suffer the fate of a man with a good idea, you know, do something about it. So when I was in the military, I remember coming back from deployments and saying, wow, I I spend so much time on my job, like learning how to do my job. If there is a way I could have some experience-based learning, I could save a lot of time overseas. And they said, Oh, well, you should do something about that. So I built curriculum at medical simulation training centers and did that. And then uh when I was at Stanford University, I said, Hey, Stanford really does champion things like DEI, EDI, JEDI, frame it however you want. They they champion equity in all of his forms. And you know, I say, we have a lot of opportunities for these, you know, historic simulation programs to maybe have some more representation or inclusion. And uh I had leaders that were like, well, yeah, great idea. You know, what are you going to do about it? You know, what's what's how what's the application look like? Oh, wow, okay. Um, you know, I got to where I am now. And I said, well, hey, um, I get it. You know, I'm I'm a simulation manager, I do simulation, air quotes, but you know, I also have a PhD, and then research is kind of a backbone of who I am as a person. I think can help out somehow. And I had readers say, well, hey, it's a great idea. You know, how are you going to apply that? And now I'm faculty for some of my programs. So and an ongoing theme has just been people being like, oh, it's a it's a great idea, but you know, how are you going to follow through with it? Kind of calling my bluff sometimes and me going for it, or people just being like open-minded and ready for me to go for it. So I think a lot of my career and advancement has also just been kind of the luck in the face of being around people who who embrace that and don't shut it down. And then when I when I face those kinds of people who tell me, you know, shut up and color, not taking that for an answer and you know, finding other ways.

Deb Tauber 6:13

No, I I love that and I couldn't agree more. I think uh the sign of a strong leader is to to turn around and go, sure, go ahead, make that happen. And and when you get that open door, it just makes you want to do a great job.

Remy Roe 6:28

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Faith, Social Justice, And Minority Stress

Deb Tauber 6:29

Now, Remy, you've you've had quite an amount of education and spirituality. And why don't you tell us a little bit about that and your passion for that?

Remy Roe 6:40

Oh, yeah. That's not a very well-known fact about me. It's so funny that you know that. So one of my bachelor's degrees is actually in religion. I almost became a chaplain in the military. I was very close. I got accepted into seminary, and then I realized I just don't have a heart for ministry. I had a heart for social justice, I had a heart for mental health. And sure, those are those are aspects of that vocation, but there's so much more than that. And I think if I would have gone into chaplaincy or ministry, I would have been terrible at it. Because it's like, no, there's just these these aspects of it. So going the route of getting my PhD in minority stress theory, of my life's work as an academic being uh understanding how to help minoritized populations and improve outcomes. I think to me, that's kind of the arena I've been called to as an academic. And it's to as a as a believer, um, you know, I respect anybody's beliefs, but me personally, as someone who believes in Jesus, I think that's the way I fulfill kind of what I believe I've been called to do, is to find a way to help the minoritized person, the refugee, the substance user. That's a big blanket of people. And I think that's the way that does it across belief systems or you know, is just to do it academically and say this is how we help people. And in simulation, uh, that's a big platform of mine simulation is authentic patient representation. I've given invited presentations at IMSH, SimOps, SimCOS, big platform of mine is uh is increasing healthcare equity through education.

Deb Tauber 8:20

Right. And I think for as long as you haven't been in the field here in simulation in this specific field for that long, but you've certainly created quite a name for yourself and quite a reputation. And I think you're gonna be the keynote speaker. Why don't you tell us a little bit more about that?

Becoming A Recognized Voice And Keynote

Remy Roe 8:37

Yeah, yeah, you're exactly right. A popular story that we all say is I've been doing simulation way longer than I realized, but it wasn't until the last few years that people have said things like Will, Dave Shablock, you know, the Sim Geeks, people saying, Hey, you're like a you're a voice in this field. Like you're putting stuff out there and people hear what you have to say, and it baffled me. Um, but I think it's just been in themes with this field is also if you really do care, we can see straight through the people that don't, right? If you if you really do care and and you you have a an idea that has some some common sense to it and can be applied, people have just welcomed me with open arms and have been I've been very grateful. And uh yeah, I'm gonna be the opening keynote speaker for Simops this year at Camels in Tampa. Even that was a crazy call. I got the phone call and I was like, did you mean to dial like Matt Sharnetsky, maybe, or like Farusa Kandor, or like you know who you're calling, right? They were like, yeah, yeah. Um I've I'm unbelievably grateful. I hate when people say it's humbling because it's not it doesn't it's not humbling me at all. It's it's it's a it's lifting me up and it empowers me. And I I hope I can continue to have these opportunities because at my heart, I'm a qualitative researcher. And like I said, if if my heart really is in health outcomes and minoritized populations, I really believe in what I like to call using my privilege as a platform. So if people are gonna listen to me and I have a voice, then all I'm gonna do is amplify the voice of minoritized populations to improve their outcomes.

Deb Tauber 10:09

Very exciting. What are you gonna talk about at SimOps?

Find A Way Or Make One

Remy Roe 10:13

Spoilers, Deb, I can't uh the theme for this year is Ignite. So yeah, I will I will say, I'll give you the name, I guess, of my of my talk is Find a Way or Make One. You heard it your first Sync Cafe podcast. The uh the opening keynote topic is uh is find a way or make one, is what I'll be talking about.

Relationships Over Hierarchy In Sim

Deb Tauber 10:38

Thank you. Thank you. And you also gracious are going to be doing a webinar for the new dissimulation affinity group for us in September. We're starting a monthly third Tuesday of the month at 12 o'clock in September. We're gonna have a speaker and you have grace after everyone in September. And you're gonna talk about relationships. Which I think I think that's where in simulation it all really starts because we can learn about empathy and relationships when we're dealing with our patients and remembering that the patient and the family member, that everybody involved is going through something and how can we be supportive of them during that time?

The Mass Casualty Story That Changed Everything

Remy Roe 11:24

Yeah, for sure. And I think it's also the core of this being relationship building, I think, is so important because simulation professionals often find themselves in these strange hierarchies of, you know, I'm SICE or our mutual friend Billy, you know, the hashtag not just a simtech. I love her and what she does out there. I'm a SimTech, but there's this doctor, this attending, this whoever, this professor who's doing all these things. Like, how do I cert that I know things as a CHSOS, as a CHSE, uh, as someone with an EMS background, nurse background like you, it all comes down to relationship building. If you build rapport and just learn how to work with people, that hierarchy in positions won't be as relevant. And sometimes it's small things. Like this past Christmas, my wife and kids and I, we went to some of my residents in the hospitals and we just brought cookies just to say, like, hey guys, I know from being in the military what it's like to be the person working on the holidays. This sucks. You know, thanks. It took five minutes out of my day, but that really strengthened my working relationship as a tertiary effect. It's like, oh wow, like everybody here cares about each other, so we we work better together. And I think that crosses the field. I'm so happy to give this talk in September. I gave a guest lecture for Dr. Teresa Gore and her program over at USF. That was really awesome. I work with a company in Canada called Sydneywheel. I'm on their uh advisory board to kind of help them learn more about the field and maybe their place in it. And I don't know endorsement of I don't get paid. Uh, you know what I mean? Like it's just something I do on my spare time, but they're a group that I believe in that are here, you know, wanting to make this field better. So I'm happy to be a part of that. I think it all goes back to if there weren't people like Susan Eller, like Kelly Bryant, like Lou Clark that just were like, Yeah, you're here, cool, come do work with us. Then it means a lot to me that I make sure I do that same thing when I see me around.

Deb Tauber 13:21

Yeah, yeah. Now, when we were at IMSH, you shared a story with Jerrod and I that really took us back for a minute. Do you want to share that again?

Simulation As Privilege And Necessity

Remy Roe 13:32

Yeah, yeah. That was uh that was a crazy moment we all shared. Uh I can't remember how the story even came up. I think it was like an impactful moment in simulation or something like that. When I was like 18 years old, uh, one of my first missions in Iraq as a young combat medic was a mass casualty situation. There was a local school in Iraq that we were giving aid to. And some hostile forces in that area were saying, hey, stop taking help from the Americans. They're the bad guys. The school did not because we were giving them aid. After that, those hostile forces uh attacked the school. They mortared the school, they blew it up. My team who I was with were the closest people to that location. And for what felt like forever, I don't even know to this day, it was maybe an hour or two tops. It can't have been longer than a couple of hours. I was the only medical person there in a school uh full of mostly burned victims. Yeah, it was a matter of triage, which is something anybody who's done that in any capacity knows that triage is what keep you up at night. Triage is what puts those of us in therapy for our entire lives. I advocate for therapy, go to therapy. I'm still in therapy. Um I'm in therapy. Yeah. Um I like to say how many people, how many of us are in therapy? Because people in our lives who didn't go to therapy. Um so, but yeah, so it's a lot a matter of triage and then handling traumatic burns, so a lot of intraosous infusions. And I had to do escherotomy and fasciotomy for the first time on children. And I remember thinking, I'll I'll never forget, I'll remember thinking, man, I wish I would have been taught this before this moment. You know, I've I'm sure I've I've seen the procedure, or you know, there's books or very, very poor practice of it, if you want to call it that. But oh my gosh, like I I needed to know how to do this before this moment. And yeah, it was it was just something that stuck with me. And I became, it's how I I wound up joining special operations. Everybody copes with trauma differently. For me, I just became obsessed with being like the smartest person in the room as a medic. I was like, I need to, I need to be better at my job. No matter what I do, I need to know what to do because I was terrified of getting called on in that moment and not knowing the right thing to do. So it was uh I was always the guy in the truck reading a book or in my spare time listening to something. And looking back, it's probably an unhealthy level of obsession, uh, which resulted in me now having seven degrees. I'm in the middle of my MBA right now. But that was if there was ever a moment that was more impactful in my life to vouch for simulation, it was dozens of children who I was learning how to save their lives for the first time when I needed to do it. Uh, it didn't, it didn't have to be like that. Years later, when I was in Afghanistan, I met a medic that was me. It was just me in Afghanistan. He was in the Afghan army, similar age, similar interest. He was my brother from another mother. Um, and I remember telling him, Hey, you guys are are saving lives with like sticks and stones out here. Like you would half of your medics aren't even literate, but you're doing good. Like you're saving lives. Like, how are you doing this? And another story for simulation is they said for them, this has been their lives for years. They have lost so many lives that they knew every way not to do it, that they learned trial literally trial by fire over and over and over. And you have to think like the privilege of having access to simulation. Some of us spend so long trying to sell simulation or increase utilization or convince people of its need. And here I am in a place learning like what a privilege that I got to kill a mannequin a hundred times. Whereas like guys is me, and he had to lose a hundred friends to learn for us to be in the same place that we were. So that's uh yeah, it's just living these things, it just mean everything to me. And I think that's I I try to be transparent about that and be authentic, and I hope that it's that authenticity that is why I've I've kind of had the open arms that I've had in this field.

Deb Tauber 17:43

Yeah. I mean, at 18, you had minimal amounts of experience.

Speaker 17:48

And I thought I knew it all. I thought I thought I knew it all. Oh my gosh.

Deb Tauber 17:56

Yeah, that would be a a really and truly humbling experience.

Remy Roe 18:00

Yeah.

Deb Tauber 18:01

Yeah.

Remy Roe 18:01

Yeah, absolutely.

Deb Tauber 18:02

I'm sure when the guys, the rest of the people showed up, you were just like, Amen.

Full Circle: Teaching Burn Management

Remy Roe 18:07

I d honestly it's like half of it was like blacking out, if I'm honest. Um the full circle beautiful part of this is years later, years later, like almost 20 years later, I was at Stanford University. I had finished my PhD, and Dr. Druden Evans, who is the head of the program director for the MSPA program there, gave me a spot as a lecturer in his program. And the class that I taught was the management of traumatic burns. That class did not exist in that PA school until I until I came. And I built a custom task trainer that you can do an escherotomy and fasciotomy on with very high fidelity. And that was one of the most incredible full circle moments of my life that I could I could die that day and I'd be like, I did it because I'm talking to these young PA students and they're leading in a little more, right? Because I'm like, no, guys, like this is I'm sharing this with them. Like, this is this is real. And for other faculty to be like, wow, like this trainer is exactly like the real thing. And to be what I needed almost 20 years before was just this incredible full circle moment of being this shell-shocked 18-year-old me, like, oh my gosh, like I needed to learn how to do this. And now, like, here I am years later in my second career, being able to teach that and and be that thing was one of the most fulfilling experiences of my entire life.

Deb Tauber 19:29

And I think you demonstrate a purpose-driven life. Someone who has faith faith and understanding that we're all here for a reason. Life is hard. I mean, and right now we're, you know, dealing with a geopolitical environment that's just takes a notch every day.

Equity Work Amid A Tough Climate

Remy Roe 19:50

Yeah, and that's that's such an interesting thing because I can't imagine like all of this stresses me out. And I'm safe. I'm like an upper middle class, cis-het white guy with a six-figure job. Like I'm I'm safe, and this stresses me out. When I get my colleagues, like Dr. Kelly Bryant, who's a woman of color, trying to do work related to DEI right now, people that are like actually being attacked, or I look at I have trans colleagues who don't go to conferences because they don't know that they can go to the bathroom in a certain state. So I can't imagine just the intersectionality or like these layers that people have to deal with, how hard it must be for them, like to navigate this and then also have to, you know, focus at work when I'm stressed out and and I'm pretty privileged in terms of like the things I have to deal with. So it means a lot to me that people like me, that the majority, like we need to take some of the load, because like these people just have been dumped on for so long and have to have these conversations constantly. Or so it's it's just a it's a time to think like, oh my gosh, like how can I just make your load a little lighter? Because I can't, I can't even imagine how stressed out you must you must be. And it's just you're exactly right. It's uh it's a crazy, crazy time.

Join The Work And Find Your Tribe

Deb Tauber 21:07

Right, right. Now, do we have any lighter things we can lighten up at the end of this episode?

Remy Roe 21:14

Yeah, holy cow. We talked about SIMOS, that's really exciting. I just applied the SSH DEI committee, had a call for members, they had like a couple open spots. So I don't know if those will still be open by the time this airs, but if they are, go to the SSH website, check out the calls. So I I hope to uh I hope to join that team, that would be really awesome. I think there's just so many ways in the face of everything that's happening right now that that isolates and separates and dichotomizes things. I'm gonna say that's a word, dichotomize. Um that there are ways to to join communities and be a part of like this tribe to do the work, right? So whatever you're doing, however, this feels overwhelming or there's a lot going on. First of all, it's it's totally Okay, that the most you did was just like keep going today. That's okay. You didn't have to publish a paper or change the life. Like maybe you just took a shower and did your dishes. Good for you, man. Like, if that's if that's what you had today, that is okay. But that there are a lot of us out there who are fighting this together and being a community. I encourage you to find those of us out there. I know you have the sim cafe to reach out to me, Remy Rowe. I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Twitter, I'll want everything. Find me if you if you have a passion for this work. I'll hang out, I'll have coffee with you, I'll I'll connect you to other groups. Find your community because like we're all doing this at the same time.

Deb Tauber 22:38

Thank you. Thank you so much for everything that you've done, everything that you continue to do. And I am really looking forward to watching where you go.

Remy Roe 22:46

Thank you. Yeah, you've been such a cool part of the journey. A couple of years ago, it was holy cow, I've been Stanford, like what? And now here we are. I'm like, I'm the keynote here. I'm writing these articles for Healthy Sim, or I'm with working with Simia Health. And we gotta have our like biannual check-in and see what the heck is going on next time.

Deb Tauber 23:03

Right, right.

Speaker 23:05

Yeah.

Remy Roe 23:05

Right.

Deb Tauber 23:06

Well, I'm gonna end this here and thank you so much once again. Thank you for your service. And that's not just in in the in the military. It's you know, your service with the sim community. I mean, that's a gift to us.

Remy Roe 23:20

Yeah, thank you, thank you for having me for all thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Deb Tauber 23:25

Okay, happy simulating.

Disclaimer/ intro 23:34

Thanks for joining us here at the Sim Cafe. We hope you enjoyed. Visit us at www.innovative simsolutions.com. And be sure to hit that like and subscribe button so you never miss an episode. Innovative Sim Solutions is your one stop shop for your simulation needs. A turnkey solution.