One Million Lives - A Laerdal Podcast

Join us as Dr. Zoran Bahtijarević, Chief Medical Officer for the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), tells us about a remarkable effort that brought CPR training to 200,000 sports fans during UEFA Euro 2024. Inspired by high-profile cardiac cases like the on-field cardiac arrest experienced by Manchester United’s famed Christian Eriksen, UEFA partnered with the European Resuscitation Council (ERC). Together they provided hands-on and online digital life-saving training to every fan they could reach. From “fan zone” CPR booths to web-based courses featuring European football stars, this campaign set a new standard for public health education in sports. 

3/20/25 • 30:25

An International Women’s Day Special—Join us as we speak with Trude Thommessen, an Academic Development Midwife and Clinical supervisor at Stavanger University Hospital, about her incredible work training midwives in Afghanistan. She shares insights into the critical shortage of midwives there, the challenges of education and training in a conservative society, and how simulation-based learning has played a crucial role in improving maternal care. We also discuss the “Three Delays” concept—why Afghan women struggle to access timely medical care—and how community midwives are not only saving lives but also becoming empowered role models in their villages. 

3/6/25 • 30:18

Every second counts in a stroke emergency. Are we doing enough to train healthcare teams for rapid response? Dr. Ivette Motola takes us inside the Advanced Stroke Life Support (ASLS®) Blended Learning Course, a transformative program teaching professionals how to detect strokes fast and act decisively. From advanced treatments to the power of simulation, she shares how education is saving lives—and what’s next in stroke care. 

2/21/25 • 28:48

In this episode, Dr. David Fredman, an expert in resuscitation systems, shares the remarkable impact of Sweden’s Heartrunner Program—a life-saving network that alerts CPR-trained volunteers via a smartphone app when someone nearby suffers cardiac arrest. With public AED use increasing survival rates to 70%, could this be the future of emergency response worldwide?  Joining him is Anna, a volunteer first responder, who has experienced firsthand the urgency of these calls. Did she make it in time? Tune in to hear her story! 

2/7/25 • 29:16

Join our conversation with two, esteemed educators from the UK’s London Ambulance Service, Stephen Davison and Tom Cutting. Davison serves as a Paramedic and Blended Digital Learning Lead and Cutting as a Digital Coordinator and, together, they share a behind the scenes look at training and education within one of the world’s largest pre-hospital care providers. Dive into the unique challenges that go with serving London’s diverse and densely populated landscape—including specialized training with the use of bicycles and motorcycles for patient care. Listen in to how they blend immersive digital tools, simulation-based learning, and peer-to-peer education to train new recruits and experienced staff alike. They also share insights into their award-winning apprenticeship program and groundbreaking "Ten-Second Triage" system, which streamlines major incident responses. 

1/24/25 • 33:29

Join us as Dr. Pierre Barker, recognized expert in healthcare quality, provides vital insights into the current landscape of patient safety as seen through his own personal narrative. In 1999, The US Institute of Medicine report “To Err is Human” revealed sobering data on the loss of life in the US due to medical error. This ignited a call for systematic change and prioritization of patient safety throughout US healthcare and in other countries. But where do we stand today?Dr. Pierre Barker answers that question for us. He is Chief Scientific Officer at the U.S. Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Offering a global perspective, he attended medical school in South Africa and has practiced pediatrics for more than 30 years in South Africa, the UK, and the US. He has worked extensively with the WHO to improve maternal and newborn outcomes. And he is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Always optimistic but equally direct, Dr. Barker shares how despite advances, healthcare still faces patient safety challenges as evidenced by gaps between evidence-based care and actual practice.

3/15/24 • 32:05

Two renowned leaders in healthcare education joined us at this year’s International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH). They are Dr. Janice Palaganas and Dr. David Rodgers. Listen as we hear their perspectives on two trending topics. Dr. Palaganas shared what it will take to further advance clinical simulation as teaching method. Dr. Rodgers spoke on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to augment a simulation program’s talent and resources.   Janice Palaganas, Ph.D., holds positions as a Professor of Interprofessional Studies at Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions (MGH IHP) and as an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Anesthesia. Her expertise—and her passion—lies in utilizing healthcare simulation for interprofessional education and optimizing simulation outcomes through diverse debriefing methods.  David Rodgers, Ph.D., holds positions at Indiana University (IU), as Director for its Interprofessional Simulation Center in Bloomington and as an assistant professor of clinical medicine in the IU School of Medicine. With over 25 years of experience in simulation, Dr. Rodgers has a wide range of knowledge in sim center operations and educational program development. As a prolific speaker and researcher, his experience in using AI is compelling.

2/9/24 • 33:42

Join us as Dr. Nalini Singhal shares highlights of her lifelong journey in revolutionizing neonatal care. A renowned neonatologist and co-developer of the Helping Babies Survive programs, Dr. Singhal's work has trained over a million healthcare professionals worldwide. In this episode, Dr. Singhal discusses topics relevant to all of us in simulation like peer-to-peer learning, clinical outcomes, continuous quality improvement. She also makes it clear; technology is no substitute for helping learners learn.  Dr. Nalini Singhal is a Professor of Pediatrics (neonatology) at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada. She is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Steering Committee for Helping Babies Survive, and a member of the Canadian Neonatal Network (CNN) Governing Board. Dr. Singhal has spent the last 25 years helping to develop and implement simple programs like Essential Newborn Care for the WHO/AAP to help save newborn lives. And her interest in advancing global neonatal outcomes is unparalleled. 

1/24/24 • 33:35

This year's annual European Resuscitation Council conference brought a new and potentially very impactful collaboration: The ERC and the UEFA (Union of European Football Associations). Football, or Soccer, is the world's largest sport, both in terms of active players and spectators. In this special episode from the ERC conference, you will hear more about this unique opportunity for lay provider CPR training to ride on the back of organized football to increase survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.  

12/20/23 • 30:46

Hear Dr. Barry Isenberg, President-elect of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH), share how the next stage in the growing importance of patient simulation will be about equating the benefits of simulation to bona fide clinical results.  Dr. Isenberg is Director of the Gordon Center for Simulation and Innovation in Medical Education at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. In this podcast he presents an overview of some key milestones in the history of patient simulation. He then shows how those milestones and much of what the patient simulation community has learned has left the simulation community poised to take patient simulation to a new level, not only focused on educating learners but on improving patient outcomes.   

10/30/23 • 38:47

Across healthcare, assessing competency has become a major concern. And it is an awesome responsibility. Schools of nursing and schools of medicine want to ensure that their graduates are prepared to care for patients. Hospitals and other institutions want to grow and develop their staff to become even better care providers. Relying on competency as a sole measure of readiness, however, creates a challenge.  Competency is about meeting standardized levels of proficiency. It is not about whether a learner can be trusted to care for a human life without supervision. In this Part 2 of a two-part series, hear Olle Ten Cate, Phd, outline a simple model for assessing whether a learner is ready to care for a patient autonomously.  A pioneer in his field, Dr. Cate is Director of the Center for Research & Development of Education at the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands. In this podcast he makes a compelling case for assessing Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) as a determinant of a learner’s readiness for independent practice. He outlines five critical areas that are foundational to trust that every organization should consider. In Dr. Cate’s words, "Trust is the foundation of medical education. It's not just about acquiring knowledge and skills but also about demonstrating reliability and responsibility."  Email:  

9/25/23 • 24:56

A “learning organization” is characterized by the value it places on curiosity. Learning organizations pursue an abundance mindset looking at problems as opportunities. In this way their curiosity fosters experimentation, vision, a commitment to mission and even a natural sense of optimism and self-confidence. Other types of organizations may adopt a scarcity mindset, emphasizing command and control, restrictive problem solving, and avoidance of perceived risk. Curiosity goes untapped.  Hear how one simulation organization put curiosity first and grew to have an international presence in improving patient outcomes. In this podcast our guests Dr. Vijayanand Jamalpuri and Dr. Vinay Nadkarni introduce, PediSTAR, India’s renowned Pediatric Simulation Training and Research Society. Both doctors share how PediSTAR started out using simulation primarily for research. They had no idea that PediSTAR would soon grow from a small organization motivated by a sense of curiosity to become now a world leader in bringing simulation to others with remarkable life-saving results.   

9/25/23 • 31:23

Competency is at the forefront of everyone’s mind in healthcare. There is barely a hospital, school of nursing, or school of medicine that is not concerned with whether their practitioners and/or soon-to-be graduates are suitably competent to deliver safe patient care. But is competency enough to assess a practitioner’s or a learner’s true readiness to fulfill their appointed role? The answer lies in first answering two questions. How much would you trust a learner to perform their role on their own? And, why? In this Part 1 of a two-part series, Hear Olle Ten Cate, Ph.D., share his expertise in assessing Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) and how by focusing on EPAs one can make the process of assessing competency much more powerful.  Known throughout the medical education community, Dr. Cate is Director of the Center for Research & Development of Education at the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands. In this podcast he explains how competency and EPAs have become critically merged. Competency is about meeting standardized levels of proficiency. EPAs are about assessing if a learner can be trusted to care for a human life without supervision. Listen to how Dr. Cate makes differentiating between competency and EPAs simple. 

9/19/23 • 31:33

If you attended this year’s meeting, the Society in Europe for Simulation Applied to Medicine (SESAM), you know that this year’s conference focused on some pivotal shifts in how key experts are looking at patient simulation. If you didn’t attend, you should know what some of those experts said. Not only was this year’s SESAM conference one of the best attended, but it was also notably optimistic about the future of patient simulation. The agenda addressed new directions that patient simulation is taking, directions which are bound to improve the delivery of healthcare globally. In this special SESAM review, hear our hosts Michael Sautter and Bjorn Egeland speak with SESAM leaders and attendees. Guests included Cristina Diaz Navarro, Associate Dean for Simulation and Clinical Skills Chair of the SESAM; Elsa Søyland, CEO of the Stavanger Acute Medicine Foundation for Education and Research (SAFER); Representatives from the Scottish Emergency Medical Retrieval Service; and several SESAM attendees. All remarked that this year saw an increased emphasis on Competency-Based Education and best practices for learner assessment. But this year’s agenda was also heavily weighted towards the use of simulation as a means for quality improvement.  As one of our guests highlighted, simulation is being used increasingly as forensic tool to better understand risk, identify areas for systems improvement, and improve care delivery. All this spells a new future for simulation. 

9/7/23 • 29:52

If you are leading patient simulation efforts in hospitals, are you pursuing an education paradigm or are you pursuing what hospitals seek—a performance improvement paradigm? Education speaks a uniquely different “language” from the world of hospitals. Education focuses on imparting the knowledge and skills necessary for a nurse, doctor, or other healthcare worker to demonstrate a foundational level of competency.  Hospitals focus on translating that competency into better care quality, patient safety, and operational efficiency. Certainly, hospitals expect their staff to embrace continuing education. But a hospital’s language is ultimately about performance improvement. Hear Paul Phrampus, MD, share his experience in using simulation to improve performance and patient outcomes at a hospital system that includes 40 hospitals in the U.S. and overseas.  Respected in simulation globally, Dr. Phrampus is the Director of the Winter Institute for Simulation, Education, and Research (WISER), and is a professor in the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Anesthesiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In this podcast he explains in sensible real-world terms why simulation specialists in hospitals must learn to speak a vernacular based on their institution’s “daily operational realities of practical care.” In his words, for simulationist in hospitals to succeed, their dialogue must be “about creating solutions for institutional problems—not how do we wow people with better education.” 

8/22/23 • 40:02

For those in Hospitals who led simulation-based training, the COVID pandemic posed a continually changing array of training priorities. Those priorities began with donning and doffing PPE but quickly evolved to managing patients in isolation, difficult airway management, respiratory therapy, and the need to deliver emergency interventions across departments that were not prepared for the new pace at which care had to be delivered. Hear Libby Thomas, PhD, share how she and others in England’s health system used simulation to keep ahead of changing training needs during the pandemic. Dr. Thomas is an Emergency Medicine Consultant at Kings College Hospital and Senior Lecturer in Emergency Medicine at Queen Mary University, London. As she explains, each day during the pandemic was a “blank canvas” with new problems to solve and new people to train. Much of the solution reflected a “train the trainer” paradigm that became essential to empowering new groups to problem-solve and dominate in their efforts save lives. 

8/1/23 • 27:03

An estimated 295,000 women worldwide die annually due to childbirth. And there are concerning trends in areas like the United States where maternal mortality rates are on the rise. Care under the supervision of a midwife has often been associated with better outcomes, and so the question becomes why.Hear Sally Pairman, MD, Chief Executive for the International Confederation of Midwives, share how much of the answer is rooted in how we look at birth. Birth, as she puts it, is a physiological process requiring wholistic facilitation from beginning to end. All too often birth is treated like a pathologic process where the treatment resembles treating an illness. As Dr. Pairman exclaims, it’s not illness. It’s health!

6/9/23 • 28:26

The Helsinki Stroke Model confirmed that stroke patient outcomes can be improved through rapid diagnosis, treatment, and efficient transfer of patients to stroke specialists. Lives have been saved through this model and a resulting sense of esprit in the stroke care community often called the “minute spirit”. Hear Martin Kurz, MD, a Neurologist at Stavanger University Hospital and President of the Norwegian Stroke Association, share how the minute spirit is not enough. He and his colleagues applied a simulation-based continuous improvement program to the Helsinki model and achieved a record-breaking median 13-minute door-to-needle time!

3/29/23 • 35:09

Healthcare institutions are now using simulation to improve systemwide performance. Learn from Victoria Brazil, MD, an emergency physician and educator at Gold Coast Health Service, Australia, how simulation can foster system-wide improvement gains which can improve patient safety and care efficiency. 

1/20/23 • 31:50

The show producer has not yet provided a description for this episode.

1/18/23 • 03:41

The Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) is a standard for assessing student performance in healthcare, but some have questioned its relevance. Listen to Ronald M. Harden, MD, OBE, often called “father of the OSCE,” as he addresses the questions and discusses the relevance of the OSCE today. 

1/11/23 • 30:45

Simulation-based training works. But what fundamentals in simulation make simulation effective. In this podcast, Ross Scalese, MD, a Professor of Medicine and Director at the Gordon Center, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, shares what makes patient simulation a success.

1/11/23 • 29:47

Immediate Kangaroo Mother Care is a lifeline for newborns, especially for ill or premature babies. Yet it is often omitted in newborn protocol. Listen to Siren Rettedal, MD, a neonatologist Stavanger University Hospital, talk about how Kangaroo Mother Care saves lives and in one study it reduced mortality rates by 25%. 

1/11/23 • 19:23

Finding the time to conduct clinical simulation in a hospital setting is a universal challenge. Listen to May Sissel Vadla, MD, a PhD fellow at the University of Stavanger, Norway, share how she helped take a birthing unit at a little-known hospital from 700 to 8,500 simulations annually while improving patient outcomes. 

1/11/23 • 23:56