Saul and Theresa Esman Foundation donates $90K for medical simulation training

Physician Assistant student Elizabeth Olarte interviews a standardized patient during a clinical skills test. Physician assistant student Elizabeth Olarte interviews a standardized patient during a clinical skills test.

The Saul and Theresa Esman Foundation, a long-time supporter of the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine (HWCOM), donated $90,000 to the college’s simulation center and standardized patient program.

Katie Boeck, Steven Levin and Murray Levin of the Esman Foundation present the check to Drs. Vivian Obeso and John A. Rock at the Albert and Debbie Tano Simulation Center.

Standardized patients are “actors” who are recruited and trained to portray patients in order to provide students with realistic training environments. The standardized patients follow specific scripts during the clinical skills or assessment sessions to simulate a real patient encounter and later provide students with feedback from the patient’s perspective.

Physician Assistant student Elizabeth Olarte interviews a standardized patient during a clinical skills test.
Physician assistant student Elizabeth Olarte interviews a standardized patient during a clinical skills test.

“These realistic interactions with standardized patients are invaluable to help enhance students’ skills in communication, clinical reasoning and physical examination,” says
Dr. John A. Rock, HWCOM founding dean and senior vice president for health affairs.

HWCOM’s state-of-the art Albert and Debbie Tano Medical Simulation Center provides a standardized patient program and programmable patient simulators to train HWCOM medical and physician assistant students.

“When I first came here 6-7 years ago, this was the program that really caught my eye,” says Murray Levin, president and chairman of the board of the Esman Foundation. “This is the right way to teach doctors how to be doctors, and you [HWCOM] are way ahead of the crowd.”

“We are grateful to Mr. Levin for his generosity, his friendship, and his enthusiasm,” says Dr. Vivian Obeso, the simulation center’s medical director. “Every time he visits, he senses our drive to do more, and he comes through so that we can do more.”

Since 2012, the Esman Foundation has generously supported the College of Medicine with gifts of nearly half a million dollars for simulation training and the Physician Assistant program.


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