Colorado medical schools use live actors to teach future doctors, but the pandemic permanently changed some of the ways they do it

On the Monday after CU Anschutz’s shutdown on March 13, 2020, medical students fired up their laptops and met their SPs online for “telehealth visits.” The switch took some quick thinking from tech team members and program coordinators, such as CU Anschutz’s Center for Advancing Professional Excellence director Shimaa Basha and Simulation Education Project coordinator Tanya Russell. “Converting (sessions) to a virtual conversation took a lot of creative energy … to put it together and not jeopardize the session outcomes or what the students can get out of it,” Basha said.