By Vvon Engineering Team | Published | Updated
Plan a simulation centre from learning objectives and operating costs, with a defined digital-anatomy role and clear boundaries between equipment categories.
Medical equipment RFQ checklist (TXT)
A simulation centre needs a teaching programme as well as equipment. Without a timetable, trained facilitators, preparation space and a recurrent budget, a well-equipped room can remain underused.
Plan capital and operating resources together. VVON’s current medical-education catalogue covers Anatomage digital-anatomy systems. The task trainers and patient simulators discussed below are comparisons for a complete institutional teaching plan, not a claim that VVON supplies those ranges.
List the curriculum competencies, choose appropriate teaching and assessment methods, design the sessions and calculate learner throughput before determining equipment quantities.
Compare learner throughput, practice opportunities and assessment objectives before choosing fidelity. Several task trainers may serve a repeated single-skill session better than one advanced simulator, while team scenarios may require capabilities a basic trainer cannot provide.
Single skill models: venepuncture and cannulation arms, injection pads, suturing and knot tying pads, urinary catheterisation models for both sexes, lumbar puncture torsos, chest drain and intercostal models, airway heads, obstetric pelvis models for normal delivery and for shoulder dystocia, and neonatal resuscitation trainers. Durability, repairability and consumable cost vary by model; choose quantities from the curriculum and planned session throughput. Buy in multiples so a class of twenty is not queuing at one model, because the alternative is a session where each student practises once and watches for the rest of the hour.
Patient simulators range from basic models to systems with controllable physiological responses and scenario functions. Their capabilities, operator requirements and recurrent costs vary. An institution considering these separate product categories should obtain a specialist demonstration and support proposal matched to its curriculum.
Assessment stations may use partitions, examination furniture, storage, timing and signage according to the assessment design. Listed furniture examples include the X36 Examination Table, SKH004 Instrument Trolley and SKH049 Screen. Confirm dimensions, cleaning and quantities from the actual station layout.
Digital anatomy and physiology content can support selected learning objectives alongside hands-on sessions. If the institution already uses an Anatomage Table Classic or another platform, review its available content and timetable before purchasing overlapping capability.
Simulated patients are trained participants who support communication, history-taking and other agreed learning objectives. Budget for recruitment, preparation, consent, psychological safety and coordination; they complement physical and digital simulation.
| Stage | What you buy | What it lets you teach | What it costs in staff time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Skills laboratory | Task trainers in multiples, consumables, basic furniture, storage | Core procedural skills for large undergraduate cohorts, timetabled weekly | Staffing and technical support matched to the teaching timetable |
| 2. Assessment capacity | Station bays, partitions, timing system, cameras, simulated patient programme | Structured clinical examinations, formative and summative, and communication skills | A coordinator and an examiner roster. Substantial at examination time |
| 3. Team based simulation | One instrumented manikin, control position, debriefing room | Deteriorating patient management, resuscitation, team working and handover | Trained facilitators and operator support appropriate to the scenarios |
| 4. In situ and interprofessional | Portable simulator, recording kit, scenario library | Simulation in the actual ward with the actual team, including systems testing | Coordination with clinical departments, which is harder than it sounds |
The storage figure is the one that gets cut from the drawing and then wrecks the operation. Task trainers, spare skins, consumables, cases, tripods, linen and furniture that has to move between session layouts all need somewhere to live, close to the room and lockable. A skills laboratory with insufficient storage becomes a store, and then it cannot be used for teaching, and the cycle completes itself.
Budget consumables, maintenance and software obligations from the actual equipment and session plan so recurrent costs remain visible after the initial purchase.
Equipment fidelity and facilitation should match the learning objective. Faculty development, prebriefing, feedback and debriefing are part of the educational programme, not features delivered by the manikin alone.
Use recognised simulation standards to plan facilitation and learner assessment. Select faculty development appropriate to the intended sessions and agree a local competency process; a short supplier familiarisation session is not a clinical teaching qualification.
Protected time is the other half of this. If simulation teaching is unpaid additional work stacked on top of a full clinical load, it survives for exactly as long as the enthusiasm of the individuals doing it. Write the sessions into the timetable and into workload allocations, with named owners, before the equipment is ordered.
Counting equipment is not a measure. These are:
Share your application, equipment requirements and procurement timeline. Our engineers can help clarify the configuration and scope for your enquiry.