Journal #4: My Project Plan

• Site title - MedSIMer.com   (er stands for Emergency room AND a person doing simulation, a SIMer! :) 

• Developer - Julie S. Sayegh 

• Rational or focus - The purpose of this web site is to provide simulated educational resources for medical professionals and those interested in medical simulation.  The goal would be to provide information about simulation, how it is being used currently in the medical field, a forum for those teaching in simulation and medical education and how to get involved, and to provide a link to online simulated patient cases that can aid as adjuvant learning tools for medical residents and community providers. 

• Main features outline - There will be a home page with the following sub categories: 
• SIM Cases
• In the News
• SIM Education 
• SIM Forums
• How to Get Involved 

• Content -   I want my content to be both informative and educational, having both simulated cases and new/info/forums being the highlight.  I am sure after more thought that the Forums and In the news sections may be combined, or content switched around a bit to make them more separate entities, but these details, I think, can be worked out later. 
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• Home page
• SIM Forums: the forums tab will be a place where people can ask questions about academic medicine, simulation, and share personal experiences.   I would also like to have a "share images" link where people can post fun photos of simulation cases, and represent the program they come from (i.e.: UCLA vs UC Irvine, etc). I also hope that there would be a sharing of ideas on cases that were developed/simulation devices developed that work well as learning tools).  I am also considering blog feeds here, a friend of mine writes a simulation blog for Academic Life in Emergency Medicine (ALiEM). 
• In the news:  This tab would have links and articles about simulation in the news, both old and new (such as went Bellevue hospital in New York launched their amazing SIM lab several years ago).  Articles on how simulation centers get involved in the community (for example, UC Irvine hosts students from Spain during an international medical education trip... means for publicity?  I think so!)  A tab to share "what are you doing in simulation?"
• SIM Cases: Online simulated games/cases that can be done for adjuvant learning.  There will be a case of the week... maybe even two, that get created and put up for learning. Can be used by residencies and medical schools as weekly assignments.  Students will get emailed their results that can be turned in to their professors.  (not sure how to go about doing all of this, but I am really looking forward to making this work!) There will be cases for ER, pediatrics, general surgery, OB/gyne, etc.) This page will link to forums for questions/answers/opinions. 
• Simulation Education:  Articles for how simulation is currently being used in medical educations, there are already some great resources showing the efficacy of simulation as a learning tool, and how/why it is a good learning tool.  Articles on appropriate debriefing techniques, how to get better at debriefing, and other articles for education purposes. 
• How to get involved: Links to simulation societies (Society for Simulation in Healthcare) and simulation conferences ( International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH)) and how to get involved in these entities.  I also want to provide a resource for Resident Phsyicians on how to go about applying for Fellowship in Simulation (link to the society for academic emergency medicine (SAEM) Fellowship Directory) and links to SIMwars (which is an annual simulation challenge put on at the SAEM annual meeting).  

• Target audience - Physicians, Medical Residents, Medical Students, Health care providers (RNs, EMS), anyone interested in simulation as a learning tool 

• Design considerations -  I would like to have a simple off white background with a central image of a cool human simulator graphic (may develop this myself, vs use a photograph) in the middle of the page.  There will be L side bar for navigating through sections, and definitely want a button to be able to return to the home screen.  I prefer not to use any blinking animation as this can be distracting for the user.  
• As the audience is all health care providers, a lot of the online and simulation technology is new to older physicians so I definitely want to make the site user friendly. 
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• Limiting factors - Limiting factors would be my lack of knowledge in how to create the simulated games and web designing/graphic designing.  Making the website appealing to physicians so that it is actually easily usable and beneficial to their learning.  And also learning to compile resources/articles that can be useful to the website... not too knowledgeable about copyright laws and how to gain access/permissions to links on the web, such as for the SAEM and SSH societies.  

Site Map: I am hoping to stick with a simple, easily navigated site to make it super user friendly. Most people in medicine (such as myself) are not too web/tech savvy, so it HAS to be easy to navigate! 

Wire Frame:  Again, something easily navigable and easy to use.  Old docs need to learn new tricks!