SIMULATED PATIENT NETWORK (SPN) - Key Persons
Cathy Smith, BA (hons), MA, PhD, CHSE, has worked as a simulationist in health professional education for over 25 years. She consults with various educational and assessment organizations locally, nationally and internationally. She works with learners in undergraduate, graduate, continuing education and faculty development contexts. She has developed curriculum for diverse formats, ranging from face-to-face to web-based platforms. Recognition for her work includes: the Ruedy Award (Canadian Association of Faculties of Medicine) for innovation in medical education; the Blizzard Award (Canadian Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education) for outstanding teaching; the Association of Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE) Outstanding Educator Award; and the SIMone Simulation Citizen of the Year Award. A long time ASPE member, she is the past Conference Chair and the incoming Chair of the international Committee. She serves on the editorial board of Advances in Simulation. Recent peer reviewed articles include the ASPE Standards of Best Practice for human role players in simulation. She has also contributed chapters for books related to SP methodology. Cathy has a particular interest the role of simulated participants and the notion of performance in simulation.
Job Titles:
- Consultant to the Committee
- Director of Educational Interventions
- Lecturer, Department of Family & Community Medicine, Associate Director, Standardised Patient Program, University of Toronto
Diana Tabak has been a standardized patient educator at the University of Toronto for over 25 years, working closely with faculty in medicine, pharmacy, and other health professions in design and development of educational and training programs using clinical simulations. She has received teaching and educational development awards and has collaborated in a variety of teaching and educational research projects. She has consulted internationally on the design and development of SP programs and SP methodology at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad; the International Centre for Health Sciences, Manipal, India; Charité Medical School, Berlin; Jordan University of Science and Technology and Amman University, Jordan and most recently as part of the Medical Advice, Quality and Absenteeism in Rural India (MAQARI) and the Institute of Socio-Economic Research on Development and Democracy (ISERDD) in Delhi and other World Bank funded projects in Serbia.
Ms Tabak is the Director of Educational Interventions for an initiative funded by Health Canada and administered through the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, Government of Ontario the Standardized Patient Program was awarded significant funding to create a program to assist internationally educated health professionals (IEHPs) in better integrating in the Canadian workforce. The goal of this project is to support already licensed health professionals (or those who have failed to license and are re-aligning professional goals) integrate more successfully into the Ontario workforce. To date five e-learning modules have been developed for the creation of a comprehensive, dynamic and current repository of practice eligible material for IEHPs to use for professional development throughout their careers.
Ms Tabak is a consultant to the Committee on Examinations - Family Medicine Simulated Office Orals (SOOs), College of Family Physicians of Canada, (2000-present). She is a member of The Family Violence Committee, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, 1998-present and the Association of Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE) 1999-present and Chair of the Special Interest Group on Hybrid Simulation. ASPE 2014-present.
Job Titles:
- Physiotherapist
- Physiotherapist at Alice Springs Hospital
Shane is a physiotherapist and completed his Bachelor of Physiotherapy (with Honours) in 2013 at Monash University, Victoria, Australia. Concurrent to his physiotherapy studies, Shane completed an Honours research project investigating the contribution of simulated patients (SPs) to physiotherapy education. This involved consulting with SPs on their perspectives on practice and expert SP educators on their perceptions and experiences of training methods. Shane is continuing this project as a Masters of Philosophy candidate at Monash University. His work was presented at national and international conferences in 2013-14.
Shane has previously held positions as Project Officer with the National Health Education and Training in Simulation (NHET-Sim) Program, and Project Officer (Educational Research) with the School of Rural Health, Monash University. In the latter position, Shane contributed to various journal papers on healthcare simulation education, in addition to the VSPN. Shane has also delivered workshops and seminars on simulated patient methodology for the NHET-Sim Program, the Australian Physiotherapy Association, and at health education conferences.
Shane co-authored the "SPs and moulage" and "SPs in nursing, pharmacy, paramedicine and physiotherapy" modules for the VSPN. Shane has also worked as an SP.
Job Titles:
- Lecturer, College of Health & Biomedicine, Victoria University
Tracy is a lecturer in osteopathy at Victoria University (VU). She is passionate about education and has a strong interest in educational theory and research, simulation education and organisational theory. Developing curriculum is a passion of Tracy's and since commencing her appointment at VU in late 2013, she has led the development of a new osteopathic curriculum to be implemented in 2016. Tracy and her colleague Brett Vaughan, have also designed a longitudinal evaluation strategy, which will compare graduates of the traditional lecture based osteopathic curriculum and the new integrated curriculum. This is the first osteopathic program in Australia to move towards this style of curriculum.
Tracy has been involved in projects on various aspects of medical education including rural general practice, surgical training, simulated patients (SPs) and leadership. She has worked on Health Workforce Australia funded projects and was the evaluations officer for the national health education and training in Simulation (NHET-Sim) Program. She currently works as a workshop facilitator for Health Education Australia Limited (HEAL), delivering SP workshops across Australia.
Working with patients is something Tracy enjoys and she works in a private osteopathic practice in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. She has a strong interest in treating patients with longstanding, complex pain and integrates hands on therapy with education and advice on an active lifestyle. Tracy sees manual therapy becoming more prominent with the increasing incidence of chronic musculoskeletal conditions in Australia and is excited to see the future of the osteopathic profession in this changing healthcare landscape.