Step inside a rich virtual academic health system where faculty build and students engage in realistic role-play and clinical scenarios. It’s a shared space for immersive learning, collaboration, and interprofessional education that mirrors modern health care practice.
The Rutgers Health Virtual Health Care Simulator (VHS) was developed at Rutgers School of Health Professions (SHP), drawing on the School’s deep expertise in interprofessional education and real-world health care training. Designed by SHP, our Simulator delivers a shared, flexible learning environment where health professions educators create immersive, case-based scenarios and role-play experiences that actively engage students in real-world clinical decision-making.
Our Simulator is set within a fictional, yet richly detailed academic health system based in Newark New Jersey and its surrounding area. Modeled after a large urban health care network, the system includes multiple hospitals, specialty and outpatient centers, and a research institute. Within this ecosystem, students experience the full continuum of academic health care delivery while exploring health equity, urban health disparities, and interprofessional collaboration.
Explore Our Simulations
Explore example simulation activities through short video clips highlighting how faculty and students engage in realistic role-play.
Ethics in Health Care
Nutrition students role-play patient and family conversations on withdrawing or withholding artificially administered nutrition and hydration at the end of life.
Motivational Interviewing
Mental health counselors in training practice motivational interviewing on the connection between diet and mental health.
Difficult Conversations
PA students are trained to discuss a difficult diagnosis with a patient.
How It Works: The Faculty Experience
The Rutgers VHS provides a shared, fictional academic health system that faculty can use as the foundation for teaching and learning activities. With AI prompts, instructors design scenarios that take place within the Rutgers Virtual Health Care System, using established hospitals, clinics, teams, and patient populations to create cohesive and realistic learning experiences.
Faculty can deploy our Simulator in a variety of formats, including live role-play, small-group discussions, interprofessional exercises, written or virtual cases, and reflective assignments. Scenarios may unfold over time, allowing students to revisit the same patients, teams, or systems as conditions evolve. Because all activities exist within a common virtual health system, learners experience continuity and realism similar to real clinical environments.
Our Simulator is flexible, making it adaptable for in-person, hybrid or online teaching. Faculty can tailor complexity and scope to match learners’ level—from introductory exposure to advanced clinical reasoning and systems-based practice.
Meet Our Characters
Meet the diverse individuals who bring the Rutgers VHS to life—students, patients, clinicians, researchers, and leaders whose stories reflect the complexity of real-world health care. These characters can be embedded across simulation activities, allowing faculty and students to engage in realistic, evolving scenarios grounded in authentic professional roles and experiences.
Dr. Amina Saleh
Chief Medical Officer
Robin Rubenstein
BS Clinical Research Assistant
Lily Tran
Dietetic Intern
Walter Green
Patient
How It Works: The Student Experience
As a student, the VHS places you inside a realistic academic health system where you actively participate in clinical and professional role-play. Rather than learning in isolation, you step into authentic scenarios that reflect the challenges, decisions, and teamwork required in real healthcare settings.
Through guided role-play, simulations, and case-based activities, you may take on professional roles, interact with patients and colleagues, navigate ethical dilemmas, and collaborate across disciplines. These experiences help you practice communication, clinical reasoning, cultural humility, and teamwork in a supportive learning environment.
Our Simulator is designed to help you build confidence and readiness for practice by allowing you to engage with complex situations before encountering them in real clinical settings. By learning within a shared virtual health system, you gain insight into how healthcare teams function, how systems influence care, and how your role fits within the larger landscape of patient-centered care.
Faculty & Student Stories
Hear how our virtual health care simulation brings learning to life
Latest Updates
News & Highlights
2025 Rutgers Online Learning Conference 2025
Leadership Lab: An AI Powered Health Care Simulation
Rebecca Brody and Jason Stevens
2026 American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS) Clinical Laboratory Educators Conference
Simulating Diagnostic Reasoning: Using AI Role-Play to Strengthen Critical Thinking in Laboratory Education
Dr. Stephanie Cochrane
Presentations
AI Powered Simulations to Enhance Clinical Research Skills
Lisa Palladino Kim, Ed.D.
(9+) Replay – Assessing Learning with AI: What Works Across Modalities
Rahul Mittal, Crystal Quillen, J. Scott Parrott, Josh Gordesky, Sheila Tabanli, Rebecca Brody
(9+) Replay – The AI-Infused Classroom
Rahul Mittal, Dasantila Sherifi
(9+) Replay – AI Chatbots for Mental Health Nutrition Training
Rebecca Brody, Elise Busse
Upcoming Presentations
2026 Innovative Teaching & Learning Conference, University of Tennessee Knoxville, March 26, 2026 What Should We Do Now? Using AI-Generated Chatbots to Teach Ethical Decision-Making for End-of-Life Nutrition Decisions Presenting Rebecca Brody
Publications
Brody R, Cunningham A, Stevens J. Prairietown Regional Medical Center: An AI-Driven Simulation for Teaching Leadership and Change Management to Nutrition Graduate Students. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. 2025; 57(8): 798-805. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2025.04.003
Using AI to Train the Next Generation of Clinicians
Inside Rutgers School of Health Professions’ Emerging Virtual Health Care Simulator Initiative | Read Article
Rebecca Brody, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator and Content Creator
Professor, Clinical and Preventive Nutritional Sciences
School of Health Professions
Jason Stevens
Principal Content Creator
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Department of Clinical and Preventive Nutrition Sciences, SHP
Scott Parrott, Ph.D.
Methodologist and Co-Investigator
Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies
School of Health Professions
Jessica Gomes, DHSc
Content Creator
Assistant Professor, Physician Assistant Studies
School of Health Professions
Stephanie Cochrane, Ed.D.
Co-Investigator and Content Creator
Assistant Professor, Clinical Laboratory and Medical Imaging Sciences
School of Health Professions
Lisa Palladino-Kim, Ed.D.
Co-Investigator and Content Creator
Lecturer, Clinical Trial Sciences Program/Biopharma Educational Initiative
School of Health Professions
Sunhee Eissenstat, Ph.D.
Content Creator
Associate Professor, Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling Professions
School of Health Professions
Joy Jia, Ph.D.
Methodologist and Co-Investigator
Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies
School of Health Professions
Filiz Carus Ozen
Content Creator
Instructional Designer
School of Health Professions
Niamboue Bado
Content Creator
Instructional Designer
School of Health Professions
Dasantila Sherifi
Content Creator
Assistant Professor
Heath Informatics, School of Health Professions
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