Interprofessional critical care training: Interactive virtual learning environments and simulations

Interprofessional critical care training (ICCT) is an important activity that helps develop and formalize an understanding of the roles, expertise, and unique contributions attributed to members of multi-disciplinary teams in critical situations. Such training is of particular importance for teams that operate under tight time constraints in highly stressful conditions, such as that found in medicine. Here we describe our first steps towards developing a virtual learning environment (simulation) specifically aimed at ICCT for pediatric critical care teams. Our virtual learning environment employs a tabletop computing platform with novel image-based sensing technologies to enable collaboration and interaction amongst a group of trainees while promoting a learner-centric approach where the simulation is tailored specifically to the needs of each trainee.