Each year, the Society for Simulation in Healthcare hosts their annual conference, the International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare (IMSH). The 2026 IMSH: Unbound began on January 10, 2026, with excellent pre-conference sessions and the Technology Forum: Unleashing Potential-Removing Barriers to Technology Integration. The day ended with another great President’s Diamond Ball to recognize excellence in service to the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH), certifications, accreditations, awards, and the Class of 2026 Fellows into the SSH Academy. This HealthySimulation.com article by Dr. Teresa Gore will highlight some of the IMSH 2026 events. After this, see yesterday’s IMSH 2026 recap on the pre-con workshops.
IMSH 2026 First Day Recap
Sunday began with a 5K Fun Run, Walk, and Roll to support the physical and mental well-being of simulations. Other key collaboration events included the SSH committee, section, special interest group (SIG), and affinity group meetings. As well as the opening of the learning labs. The day finishes with the 2nd annual IMSH cornhole tournament to support the SSH fund. SSH offers a group for everyone involved in simulation, providing opportunities to meet and collaborate in person at IMSH.
Exclusive Executive Leadership Interviews
HealthySimulation.com Founder/CEO Lance Baily sat down with executive leadership from some key vendors at the booth to learn more about what is new from their company this year, the clinical training challenges they are trying to solve, how they differentiate themselves from competitors, and to learn how they are incorporating AI and other industry wide trends.
SSH Recognition for Accreditation
Recognition of the accomplishments of 2025 for Accreditation:
- SSH Provisional Accreditation to 13 programs
- SSH Full Accreditation to 31 programs
- SSH Mid-Cycle Accreditations to 22 programs
- SSH Human Simulation Accreditation to 3 programs
- SSH Reaccreditation to 22 programs
- Total of 316 Healthcare Simulation Programs in 24 countries
Healthcare Simulation Professional Certifications
For certifications in healthcare simulation, SSH offers the Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator (CHSE), Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator – Advanced (CHSE-A), Certified Healthcare Simulation Operations Specialist (CHSOS), and the Certified Healthcare Simulation Operations Specialist – Advanced (CHSOS-A). In 2026, 650 healthcare simulationists earned new certifications, and 600 renewed their healthcare simulation certifications.
View the HealthySimulation.com Webinar Expert’s Guide to SSH Accreditation for Healthcare Simulation Programs to learn more!
SSH Academy Fellows
Eleven new Fellows were selected into the SSH Academy. This raises the total of FSSH to over 145.
- John Alex
- Tiffani Chidume
- Cathleen Deckers
- Shannon DiMarco
- Jose Roberto Generoso, Jr.
- Kyle Johnson
- Jennifer Manos
- Jennifer McCarthy
- John Paige
- Tonya Rutherford-Hemming
- Ajit K. Sachdeva
IMSH Attendance and Educational Sessions
The Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH) has over 5,340 members, with 300+ SSH Accredited Centers, 5,500+ SSH Certified Professionals. IMSH 2026: Unbound has over 4,200+ attendees, 130+ Exhibiting Companies, and offered 800+ total education events.
Affinity Group and Working Committee Meetings
SSH highlighted some of the benefits to their members and the simulation community for special interest groups, affinity groups, working committees, and training for some of their committees. Get involved and Get Connected to unbound your connections! Here are some of the working groups that met on Sunday:
- SSH Accreditation Reviewer Training
- ASCEND Program
- Dictionary Editorial Group
- CHSE Advisory Team
- SSH Affiliates Meeting
The Healthcare Simulation Dictionary will begin their multi-year process to examine each word in the dictionary with current definitions, references, and changes over time. After the initial review and updates, new words for dictionary inclusion consideration will begin the process. This project is expected to take a couple of years to complete the Healthcare Simulation Dictionary 4.0.
The Opening Plenary Session – The Chad Epps Lecture
Dr. Chad Epps, an anesthesiologist and visionary leader, made lasting contributions to healthcare simulation through service, scholarship, and system-level innovation. A past President (2016) and Board member (2015–2017) of the SSH, he began his passion for simulation with a fellowship at Mount Sinai. He advanced interprofessional simulation infrastructures at the University of Alabama Birminghamand later as Executive Director at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center. Following his unexpected passing in 2020, colleagues and his wife, Deborah, established the Chad Epps Endowment to honor his enduring impact on the simulation community.
Tania Katan is the author of the award-winning book “ Creative Trespassing: How to Spark and Joy Back into Your Work and Life.” With the stand up, shake up, and show up attitude, Tania electrifies audiences throughout the world with bold storytelling and motivational comedy. Her audiences are provided with the tools and inspiration necessary to open their imaginations and collaborate to drive innovation.
Key takeaways from Tania Katan include:
- All of us have an innate ability to come up with solutions
- Instead of being a Chief Information Officer, become the Chief Inspiration Officer
- More fun equals more productive people
- Constraints breed creativity
- What is your current job title? What do you actually do? What should your job title be?
- Example: Teresa Gore, Partially Retired Educator, HealthySimulation.com Content Manager, and Grandmother in preferment (I only do what I want to do and have fun). New job title: Preferred Informant – rationale – I am in preferment and facilitate information transfer from one person or group to another/
- Example: Carrie Gigray, HealthySimulation.com Content Creator, Paramedic educator, and PhD student. New job title: Body Builder – rationale – she is all about the body parts and pieces of the manikins and task trainers as a SimOps Specialist to build the best educational experiences for all learners.
View the new HealthySimulation.com Community New to Healthcare Simulation Group to discuss this topic with your Global Healthcare Simulation peers!
Exhibit Hall Grand Opening: IMSH 2026 EXPO
The opening of the Exhibit Hall with over 140 vendors debuted Sunday, January 11, with another sold-out floor. IMSH is proud to host one of the world’s largest exhibitions for healthcare simulation professionals. An example of vendors present includes:
- Avkin
- Center for Medical Simulation (CMS)
- Education Management Solutions
- Elevate Healthcare
- Gaumard Scientific
- HealthySimulation.com
- Intelligent Video Solutions
- Laerdal Medical
- Limbs & Things
- Lumeto
- Medical Shipment
- MEDICFX
- Nasco Healthcare
- neosim AG
- Northwestern University, Northwestern Simulation
- Operative Experience
- Oxford Medical Simulation
- PCS.ai
- Pocket Nurse
- SimVS
- SimX VR
- Surgical Science
- TacMed Simulation
- UbiSim
- VirtaMed
- WISER
Learning Labs Showcase New Vendor Technologies
- SIMStation Inc. Presents: Empowering Tomorrow: The Strategic Role of Simulation in AI-Driven Medicine
- TacMed Presents: Building Effective Prehospital Blood Transfusion Simulations: A Hands-On Lab for EMS Educators
- Education Management Solutions Presents: Creating a Simulation-Based Signature Assignment to Assess AACN Competencies in one of the four Spheres of Care
- Elevate Healthcare Presents: Insight into Outcomes – Transforming Simulation Data into Meaningful Change
- Laerdal Medical Presents: Driving Healthcare Improvement Through Translational Simulation and Collaboration
- SimX Presents: Teaching with AR, VR, MR, XR
- BioMed Simulation Presents: Simulation as the New Standard of Care: Building Interprofessional Excellence Through ECMO Education and Beyond
Don’t forget to check out all the HealthySimulation.com articles covering the IMSH 2026 event:
