These facilities and tools are invaluable to students. They create a learning environment that ensures Tufts-educated physicians and other health-care professionals continue to be among the finest caregivers in the world.
Support the Camilla Bessey Thompson and Paul D. Thompson, M.D., Clinical Skills and Simulation Center
Welcome to the future of medical education.
Simulation training at Tufts is essential to providing our students with foundational skills – everything from drawing blood to responding to complex emergencies – that they’ll use for the rest of their careers. As medical education and practice continue to evolve, we must ensure that our simulation training and facilities keep pace.
Your generosity and support will help ensure that our Camilla Bessey Thompson and Paul D. Thompson, M.D., Clinical Skills and Simulation Center offers the spaces, tools, and expert staff that support rigorous, in-depth simulation training. The Thompson Sim Center is an important part of how we enable extraordinary learning outcomes for our students, as well as better health outcomes for their future patients.
On this page:
- A word from the Dean
- Thompson Sim Center features
- Benefits of simulation education
- Facts & figures
- Space descriptions
- Funding opportunities
A WORD FROM THE DEAN
In the fall of 2016, we embarked on an historic transformation of what is now the Michael Jaharis Jr., M87P, H15, Anatomy Laboratory, made possible by a gift from the Jaharis Family Foundation. We are honored by the generosity and vision of the Jaharis family, and thrilled that their gift has created an opportunity for all of us to become partners in supporting both the Thompson Sim Center and the Michael J. Anatomy Lab through the Clinical Skills and Medical Education Technology Fund.
Your gifts to the Clinical Skills and Medical Education Technology Fund will equip the new Thompson Sim Center and the Michael J. Anatomy Lab with state-of-the-art tools, resources, and faculty support—everything we need to support these beautifully renovated spaces as medical training environments of the highest caliber. Together, we will shape a wonderful future for the medical school, and a brighter world through the practice of medicine.
With gratitude,
Helen W. Boucher, MD, FACP, FIDSA
Dean, Tufts University School of Medicine
Chief Academic Officer, Tufts Medicine
FEATURES: THE NEW THOMPSON SIM CENTER
Health in the heart of the city
Located at 136 Harrison Ave, one floor below the Michael J. Anatomy Lab, the 15,000-square-foot Camilla Bessey Thompson and Paul D. Thompson, M.D., Clinical Skills and Simulation Center facility is an important part of Tufts’ downtown Boston Health Sciences campus. It offers a full suite of spaces and features designed to further enhance the student experience:
- A 50-person classroom
- 16 simulated exam rooms
- 4 simulation spaces
- Debrief, preparation, and classroom spaces
- 3 observation/monitoring rooms
- Write-up stations outside every exam room
- A lounge for standardized patient actors
- Offices for the Educational Affairs staff who support the facility
THE BENEFITS OF SIMULATION EDUCATION
Why simulations?
Medical education is increasingly focused on case-based scenarios, small group and team-based learning, and high levels of student-faculty interaction. Simulated experiences like those offered by the Thompson Sim Center support these strategies, and provide students with a proven, highly effective set of tools for training skilled, versatile clinicians who possess the confidence and sensitivity to create better patient experiences and health outcomes.
Simulations ensure that today’s medical students gain real-time exposure and hands-on experience in a wider, more diverse range of scenarios — all in a safe environment designed for better learning
FACTS & FIGURES
A little more breathing room
Situated just steps from Tufts Medical Center and in an epicenter of 21st-century medical care, the Thompson Sim Center offers students more space to hone their skills.
+50% increase in overall facility size
+60% more high-fidelity simulation rooms
+33% increase in clinical skills rooms
Learning any academic discipline, you need to know the foundations. In these new spaces you can study in the way that works for you.
Madeleine Streit, M18
SPACE DESCRIPTIONS
Have a look around
From simulation, control, and debrief rooms to corridor write-up stations and standardized patient lounges, every space within the Thompson Sim Center has been carefully designed to foster collaboration and learning.
Simulation rooms
In “Sim rooms”, groups of 5-6 students gather around a hyper-realistic patient simulator manikin to diagnose and treat a wide range of symptoms and scenarios. Whether their patient is an adult male, a pregnant woman, or a child, students learn to navigate cues like facial expressions, verbal prompts, and simulated bodily functions, striving for optimum outcomes in real time before reviewing detailed video of each procedure.
Control rooms
While the medical school’s current simulation space includes only one control room, the new Thompson Sim Center features three. This means that individual simulation rooms can be active simultaneously, under the watchful eye and guidance of a faculty member.
Exam Rooms
Designed and equipped to simulate a clinic, these spaces are where students work with volunteers and standardized patients to gain experience and build skills in areas such as how to take a patient’s history, physical exams, and women's health.
Debrief Rooms
Once a simulation or other clinical exercise has been completed, students and faculty remove themselves from the higher-stress environment of the sim room or exam rooms to convene in a debrief room. There, they review video of their procedure, self-critique, consider alternatives, and discuss major takeaways from their simulated experience.
Pre-brief / Skills rooms
These flexible spaces are where student groups meet with faculty prior to a simulation to become familiar with the scenarios, procedures, and other essential information that will guide their experience. They accommodate a range of uses, including things like practicing how to take blood and intubate a patient.
Standardized patient lounge
Standardized patient actors (SPs) are an essential part of Objective Structured Clinical Examinations, or OSCEs. Providing actors with a lounge where they can prepare and sequester themselves throughout exam day helps create a more realistic, believable, and immersive simulation experience for students.
FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
Maximize the impact of your gift
The learning environment we build today will serve thousands of Tufts medical students—and, through them, bring quality care to millions of patients. Few giving opportunities allow you to make such a profound impact on so many.
And just as the Jaharis family has inspired the Tufts community with their support, your gift can be an example of generosity and leadership to others.
Naming opportunities
Rooms within the Thompson Sim Center and the Michael J. Anatomy Lab are available for naming gifts. If you’re interested in naming one of the rooms listed below, please email medicine-giving@tufts.edu.
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Space Amount Status Pre-Brief / Skills Room (classroom) $350,000 Available – 1 of 1 Simulation Room (large) $300,000 Available – 1 of 1 Simulation Room (medium) $250,000 Available – 1 of 3
Already named:
– Anonymous (1)
– Estate of Robert I. Katz, A46, M48
Skills / “Just in Time” Room (task training) $250,000 Available – 1 of 1 Office Suite $250,000 Available – 1 of 1 Stairwell (M&V Floors 1-3) $200,000 Available – 0 of 1
Already Named:
– Andrew C. Meyer, Jr., A12P, M17P, and Kathleen Sullivan Meyer, A12P, M17P
Debrief (conference) Room (medium) $150,000 Available – 0 of 2
Already named:
– Marc J. Homer, M.D., A00P, A05P, M09P, and Diane Bernstein Homer, J72, A00P, A05P, M09P
– Lily Lawn-Tsao, M77, and Joseph Tsao
Simulation Control (observation) Room $100,000 Available – 0 of 3
Already named:
– James Park, A03P, M11P, and Dorothy Park, A03P, M11P
– Ronald Sue, M81, A06P, and Penny Sue, A06P
– Bruce Berger, M70 and Barbara Berger
Exam Room $75,000 Available – 9 of 16
Already named:
– Jeanelle Beskin
– Alphonse Calvanese, M78
– Estate of Gertrude C. Harris and Casimir P. Harris, M41
– Estate of Virginia M. Moxom
– Pamela Sherwood, M17, and the Ned and Emily Sherwood Family Foundation
– David B. Stanton, M81
– Sara-Jane Benson Victor, AG60
Simulation Education Director’s Office $75,000 Available – 1 of 1 Standardized Patient Lounge $50,000 Available – 0 of 1
Already named:
– Walter M. Rosen, O.D., Sandra Rosen, Brian Rosen, and Lisa Rosen
Simulation Technician’s Office / Prep Room $50,000 Available – 1 of 1 Office (in Office Suite) $50,000 Available – 3 of 4
Already Named:
– Bryan D. Vo, M04
Reception Area (in Office Suite) $50,000 Available – 0 of 1
Already Named:
– Kathleen C. Hittner, M73, and Barry G. Hittner
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Space Gift amount Status TEAL (Technology-Enabled Active Learning) Classroom $350,000 Available – 1 of 1 Advanced Anatomy Lab $250,000 Available – 0 of 1
Already Named:
--Dr. Walid El-Bermani Advanced Anatomy Lab
Breakout Area (lobby) $200,000 Available – 1 of 1 Stairwell (M&V Floors 1-3) $200,000 Available – 0 of 1
Already Named:
--Andrew C. Meyer, Jr., A12P, M17P, and Kathleen Sullivan Meyer, A12P, M17P
Student Locker Room $50,000 Available – 0 of 4
Already Named:
--Walter M. Rosen, OD, Sandra Rosen, and Brian Rosen
--Robert K. Rosenthal, M62, J89P, and Esther Rosenthal, J89P
--Pamela Sherwood, M17, and the Ned and Emily Sherwood Family Foundation (2)
Faculty Locker Room $50,000 Available – 0 of 1
Already Named:
--Kathleen C. Hittner, M73, and Barry G. Hittner
Dissection Table sponsorship $10,000 Available
Your gift to name a space will support the Clinical Skills and Medical Education Technology Fund (“the Fund”), which will fund essential equipment like:
Patient simulators
Patient simulator manikins are essential components of the simulation education taking place at the Thompson Sim Center. With adult male, adult female, and full-term newborn models available, these technologically sophisticated tools teach a wide range of skills and competencies in areas that include multiple airway, breathing, cardiac, circulation, vascular, ocular, and pharmacological features. They are completely wireless, can integrate with existing computer networks, and are able to simulate complex pathologies with unparalleled realism.
A full complement of patient simulators will enable the Thompson Sim Center to operate at full capacity by allowing groups of students to work in all of our sim rooms simultaneously, creating optimal learning outcomes day-in, day-out.
- Two adult male (SimMan 3G)
- One full-term newborn (“Torey”)
- One adult female / Childbirth simulator (“Victoria”)
Task trainers
While patient simulator manikins allow students to test their skills and knowledge in real time, task trainers are the tools that enable repetition and careful practice to perfect those skills. From intubation to placing a central line, students can sit for extended periods repeating a particular motion, process, or skill—all on their own time, without faculty supervision, so that when it comes time for their next simulation, they’re ready to go.
A full suite of task trainers would provide students with a permanent, dedicated task training space within the Thompson Sim Center where they can come and hone their skills, day or night.
Faculty and staff time
The new Thompson Sim Center brings much-needed increases in square footage, active rooms, and simulation equipment, but supporting this growth requires increased faculty oversight and mentorship. Whether you give through the Fund or endow a dedicated fund to establish a permanent faculty position at the Thompson Sim Center, gifts that are directed toward compensating additional faculty help to create the best possible learning environment for students.
A partnership of Tufts, the Jaharis Family Foundation, and you.
From the Michael J. Anatomy Lab to the Thompson Sim Center, your support of the Clinical Skills and Medical Education Technology Fund has ushered in a new chapter of possibility and excellence at Tufts University School of Medicine. Thank you.