Bond University has partnered with global healthcare company Laerdal Medical to improve patient safety and healthcare systems through advanced simulation technology.
The collaboration combines Laerdal’s leadership in simulation and digital solutions with Bond University’s internationally recognised expertise in translational simulation, led by Professor Victoria Brazil.
“Over the last 30 years, simulation has been about recreating situations where we have to look after patients, sometimes in teams, to practise how we work and coordinate together,” Professor Brazil said.
Simulation can take place anywhere across the healthcare system – from emergency departments to GP clinics, palliative care or birthing suites – using equipment or actors to recreate real-world challenges.
“We work with plastic mannequins that are highly technical, to flat plastic representations of human beings, or with simulated patients (actors). Whatever it takes to recreate the kinds of challenges healthcare professionals face,” she said.
While traditional simulation focuses on training individuals and teams, translational simulation looks at the systems in which they work.
“Mostly, healthcare professionals are pretty good, but the systems in which they do their work can make the difference between success or failure – and in 2025, those systems are complex,” Professor Brazil said.
“Whether you’ve got the right equipment in the right place, whether people can communicate effectively, whether the workspace layout makes sense, translational simulation lets us test if those systems work.”
Bond’s approach has already delivered results locally.
“At Gold Coast Health we’ve used simulation when opening new spaces, including a secure mental health unit and a dementia ward, to explore whether everything is set up well enough for the staff before the doors open to patients,” she said.
“We’ve also done a lot of work on speeding up things like getting people with heart attacks or strokes to the place they need to be very urgently,” she said.
Through the new partnership, Bond will provide the expertise and Laerdal will develop the technology and tools.
Together they are building an artificial intelligence platform called Sim to Improve, which will guide health teams on how to design, run and learn from their own simulations.
“Until now there's only been a very small number of us doing this kind of work. This puts the tool in the pocket of many more people,” Professor Brazil said.
The collaboration will also develop online training modules and resources to help organisations apply simulation to real system challenges and measure improvement over time.
“This puts Bond front and centre of something that’s truly cutting-edge,” Professor Brazil said.
“It allows us to have an impact at a scale we couldn’t dream of on our own.”
Laerdal Medical, headquartered in Norway, is a global leader in healthcare education and resuscitation training, with a mission to help save more lives.