The Blended Learning Interactive Simulation Suite, or BLISS, uses 270-degree, floor-to-ceiling touchscreen walls that display curated video and audio, providing an immersive view of any event, location or experience — either real or created. The technology was funded by a philanthropic gift from the Paul B. Hunter and Constance D. Hunter Charitable Foundation.

Acquired to better prepare students for the frontline roles they’ll encounter as healthcare practitioners, the technology serves as a unique and hands-on learning tool.

“It allows us to create environments that have a higher level of realism,” says Bari Hoffman, associate dean of clinical affairs for the College of Health Professions and Sciences. “We want students to be used to the sights, sounds, stressors and energy associated with hospitals, clinics and other locations where they will be providing treatment.”

BLISS is unique in that the user is fully immersed in the room with no headsets or tethers. Plans are in place to add smells and a floor that can vibrate and rumble, bringing another dimension to the experience.

The suite joins a host of other digital health technology tools already housed in the Rehabilitation Innovation Center, including a hologram machine, a maker space with a 3D printer used to adjust toys and household items for patients with rehabilitative needs, and a “Smart Home” room designed to train clinicians, patients and caregivers how to adapt a home for safety and better navigation.

BLISS can be used to demonstrate a medical procedure, recreate an emergency or incident, or display anatomical models in greater detail. Students can be transported virtually to any environment in the world, enabling them to respond to treatment scenarios or practice skills in a more realistic environment. Faculty can lecture, demonstrate techniques and then engage students in applying their knowledge through exercises and skills stations.

For example, students studying to become speech language pathologists can examine anatomical models using touchscreen technology to rotate, zoom in and view inside the jaw, neck and throat. Skills stations for pre-med students in health sciences can take place in a mock hospital room where they can learn to navigate and gain information through patient charts and medical equipment. And students studying athletic training can practice first aid skills in a crowded football stadium with the roar of the crowd and the presence of anxious teammates, coaches and fans looking on.

“We can give students access to locations and experiences that might not be possible in person due to cost or geography considerations.” — Bari Hoffman, associate dean of clinical affairs for the College of Health Professions and Sciences

“We can give students access to locations and experiences that might not be possible in person due to cost or geography considerations,” says Hoffman. “We can provide the backdrop for any clinical or non-clinical setting. It can be a patient’s home, the inside of an ambulance or a medical clinic 
 and it could also be a roadside traffic crash, a crowded airport terminal or an entertainment venue. The backdrop, combined with the use of our manikins and other high tech, hands-on equipment in the center, is what makes this truly unique.”

Faculty are developing new scenes and scenarios for students, as well as tailoring existing healthcare lessons developed by hospitals and universities in the United Kingdom who are using the same system there.

Associate Professor Jennifer Tucker teaches a coursework on neurological physical therapy in which students study the evaluation and treatment of patients with movement problems due to disease or injury of the nervous system. This semester, her students will examine patient cases involving stroke, conduct a comprehensive assessment and develop short and long-term recovery treatment protocols. Their classroom will be in BLISS, giving them an up-close look at the course content.

“The space just lends itself to a higher level of student engagement,” says Tucker, who has already taken students in for any early look and a basic skills exercise. “It felt very real, very quickly for them and I could see how the environment required them to actively think on their feet and react and respond to what’s happening around them.”

Research on the use of simulation in healthcare education supports that the more “real” the simulation, the more engaged students become, and the better learning outcomes they have. Having hands on and immersive experiences helps close the gap between the classroom and the real-world experience that students will encounter as health care practitioners.

In addition to serving as a learning lab and classroom for students, BLISS will also be a therapy tool for patients served by the college’s community clinics, including the Communication Disorders Clinic. Clinicians there assist patients who have communication and hearing challenges and they’ll incorporate the tech in therapy sessions.

For example, a patient struggling with stuttering could undergo therapy at a simulated movie theater ticket counter, or a patient being treated at the Aphasia House might practice interacting with the cashier immersed in a grocery store setting.

The space can be transformed into a dentist’s office, barber’s shop or noisy shopping center to help children with autism adjust and manage heightened sensory reactions. Children with mobility impairments in the Go Baby Go! program can test drive their specially retrofitted cars against the backdrop of a simulated racetrack.

The new space is also expected to be a site for the clinic’s summer programs for children with reading challenges. Youth in the camp will be able to see their storybooks come to life and interact with the words and the characters.

“The possibilities are endless,” says Hoffman who is working across UCF’s Academic Health Sciences Center to help make the technology accessible for faculty and students across all health-related disciplines to practice team-based care. “The only limitation is your imagination.”

“With this new technology, we are able to provide a deeper experience, introducing students to a wide variety of patients at different severity levels through hologram technology, both live or pre-recorded, and have a very true-to-life interaction to teach our future healthcare providers humanistic care,” says Bari Hoffman, associate dean of clinical affairs for the College of Health Professions and Sciences, who spearheaded the project.

The use of hologram patient simulation in healthcare was initiated by the College of Health Professions and Sciences through its Innovation Center.

The UCF College of Health Professions and Sciences trains graduate students in a variety of healthcare disciplines such as speech-language pathology, physical therapy, athletic trainingÌęČčČÔ»ćÌ곊±ôŸ±ČÔŸ±łŠČč±ô social work. Starting this fall, the tech will be incorporated into these programs, giving students a new way to learn how to assess and treat patients.

Adding the hologram technology broadens the variety of patients that students can learn from and helps bridge the gap when in-person interactions are not possible or cost-prohibitive.

These learning experiences have typically been limited to pictures and videos of patients, or relied on volunteers to come to class. Adding the hologram technology broadens the variety of patients that students can learn from and helps bridge the gap when in-person interactions are not possible or cost-prohibitive. The recordings also offer a better way of standardizing patient interactions to assess student competencies.

Research on the use of simulation in healthcare education supports that the more “real” the simulation, the more engaged students become, and the better learning outcomes they have.

Because the hologram is more lifelike, it helps to solicit better engagement and connection to students who are practicing their skills. Research on the use of simulation in healthcare education supports that the more “real” the simulation, the more engaged students become, and the better learning outcomes they have.

The tech allows students to see and examine the whole patient and pick up on nonverbal cues that could be missed with tools that have a limited view, like a video conference call.  It also provides a means for students to be exposed to patients who are immune compromised without posing risk to the patient, while still getting a full view of the patient. UCF will use the tech across different healthcare programs to foster more interprofessional learning and best prepare students to work as a healthcare team.

UCF was able to acquire the PORTL device thanks to a gift from Brooks Rehabilitation. The use of technology to better train future healthcare providers is a mutual goal of Brooks and the college, so pioneering the use of holograms as simulated patients was a natural fit.

“Innovation and continuous learning are core Brooks Rehabilitation values,” says Doug Baer, president and CEO of Brooks Rehabilitation. “As patients expect the delivery of care to expand and occur in new ways, ensuring students have access to cutting-edge technology for simulated patient training and learning is essential to advancing the health and well-being of our communities. Brooks is proud to provide this gift to UCF.”

In addition to the teaching components of the tech, the College of Health Professions and Sciences also plans to utilize PORTL’s live “holoportation” capabilities in its clinical practices to expand care to rural areas, when in-person care is not feasible. The college also plans to host virtual case studies where experts from around the world present and show their patients using the 3D technology.

PORTL Inc. makes hologram communication and content for a variety of applications in business, entertainment, and education. Its ability to present people in life-size, volumetric 4K for interactive experiences, both live and pre-recorded, has been used by executives and celebrities to make appearances across the globe, to cross COVID-19 quarantine lines safely, and to create fan experiences.

“We are gratified that our vision of connecting the world through holoportation is now taking root in healthcare education with this historic deployment with the ĆźÆÍAV,” said David Nussbaum, CEO of PORTL Inc. ”Our strategic partnership with Dr. Hologram now makes it easy for educators and healthcare leaders to further modernize their systems that can positively impact their organizations and the communities they support.”

The clinic, which was started by faculty from UCF’s and is located inside the UCF Student Health Center, provides progressive, evidence-informed physical therapy services to UCF and the local community.

“The UCF Physical Therapy Clinic was created as an academic health practice that blends high quality patient care and contemporary education,” says Patrick Pabian, director of the physical therapy program. “Our clinical faculty are providing highly-specialized care in sports medicine and orthopedic physical therapy, while enhancing the learning experience for students who do clinical rotations in this unique clinical environment.”

Sheila Klausner and Randi Richardson are both clinical faculty who serve as board-certified clinical specialists at the clinic. They provide advanced care to patients and mentorship of doctoral students.

“Helping to set up a new clinic was an awesome opportunity because I get to treat patients on-campus, help serve the UCF community, and also teach the UCF PT students and help them develop their skills,” says Richardson.

The clinic offers rehabilitation care for injuries and those recovering from surgery, in addition to evaluation services for pain, and prevention services to support health and wellness.

“The PT clinic is an extension of the program and allows the students to participate and see the transition between what they learn in the classroom and how it applies practically in the real world,” Klausner says.

Marielle Garvey, a senior psychology major at UCF, has been a patient at the clinic since August 2020. She was referred to the clinic by her doctor for lingering pain from a back injury sustained from a car accident in 2015.

Garvey says that she appreciates the personalized care that she receives from the clinic. Following an assessment with the clinicians, they worked together to develop a home and clinic treatment plan.

“I got the chance to develop a really close connection with my physical therapists,” Garvey says. “The clinic feels so intimate and personal, and they take really good care of you.”

“The opening of the PT clinic complements the array of clinical services offered by the College of Health Professions and Sciences through our clinical enterprise,” said Bari Hoffman, associate dean of clinical affairs. “We look forward to continuing and growing our portfolio of care to the local community.”

More information about the clinic and its services is .

Patients who are hospitalized due to COVID-19 are often put on ventilators to assist their breathing. Prolonged ventilator use puts a strain on the vocal cords and reduces respiratory muscle strength, which can impact breathing, speech and swallowing. Speech language pathologists are specialists in upper airway, aerodigestive and laryngeal function disorders and are a key part of patient recovery teams.

“This course provides up-to-the-minute information that fills a need in the education of both practicing clinicians, and students about to enter the field.” – Bari Hoffman Ruddy, associate dean of clinical affairs for the College of Health Professions and Sciences

“This course provides up-to-the-minute information that fills a need in the education of both practicing clinicians, and students about to enter the field,” says Bari Hoffman Ruddy, associate dean of clinical affairs for the College of Health Professions and Sciences, who co-designed the course with colleague Vicki Lewis, an instructor in the . “This specialized curriculum focuses on managing the potential medical issues patients may experience across the continuum of care. This course includes content that is not readily available and is ever-evolving as new data become available. We hope this course will yield workforce ready clinicians who are prepared to meet the challenges in today’s complex healthcare environment.”

Both Hoffman Ruddy and Lewis specialize in complex medical conditions with a focus on upper airway and disorders of the larynx (voice box) making them uniquely qualified to lead the course. Lewis has over 25 years’ experience in the acute care setting working closely with cardiothoracic surgery, otolaryngology, pulmonology and other medical specialists.

Due to the pandemic, the course delivery will be fully online. xStudents will be mailed simulation materials and medical supplies which will be utilized throughout the course. Students will engage in hands-on training in how to accomplish a range of procedures, such as tracheostomy care, speaking valve care, and infection prevention.

“This 3-credit hour master’s level course is available to current students in the graduate program in speech-language pathology and to clinical speech-language pathologists in the field interested in advancing their knowledge and skill set in medical speech-language pathology,” says Jennifer Kent-Walsh, interim director of the School of Communication Sciences and Disorder. “The course affords immediate engagement with content relevant to the post COVID-19 patient, and is expected to be an important steppingstone for future interdisciplinary healthcare course offerings in the College of Health Professions and Sciences at UCF.”

The course is offered in the Summer B term starting on June 23. Registration begins in early June.

“While COVID-19 will eventually be downgraded from a pandemic, what is here to stay is how we train our healthcare providers to respond to these types of situations,” says Hoffman Ruddy. “This pandemic has forever changed how we deliver care. The course will meet both the short-term needs of the healthcare industry and strengthen the curriculum of future healthcare professionals at UCF.”

The event, cosponsored by the Office of Research and Faculty Excellence, recognizes faculty members across all disciplines for being academic leaders in their field and conducting work that has a significant impact on the world.

“Luminaries, you shine a positive light on the university and illuminate the path for discovery and UCF’s future successes,” UCF President Dale Whittaker told the audience gathered at Orlando’s Harry P. Leu Gardens. “I can’t think of a better word to describe the work of tonight’s honorees than ‘impact.’ These individuals embody UCF’s promise to have a positive, lasting impact on our students and society.”

Recipients received a glass award and each week one faculty member will be featured on the Office of Research website through December. A story on the first recipient has been posted on the website.

This year’s winners are:

Team Award: Space Team. The recipients of this award were recognized for their collective efforts to advance planetary sciences, particularly mini-satellites called CubeSats. The team includes:

Recipients were nominated and a committee made the final selection based on several criteria including: alignment to UCF’s Collective Impact goals of doubling national/international recognition of faculty; notable accomplishments in research and/or creative activity over the past three years, with the impact demonstrated in many ways including news releases, national or international awards or fellowships, significant public involvement, social media hits, etc.