Rutgers Health Virtual Health Care Simulator (VHS)

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.

About Our Simulator

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.

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

Meet the Team

Rebecca Brody, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator and Content Creator

Professor, Clinical and Preventive Nutritional Sciences

School of Health Professions

brodyra@shp.rutgers.edu

Jason Stevens

Principal Content Creator

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Department of Clinical and Preventive Nutrition Sciences, SHP

jrs491@shp.rutgers.edu

Scott Parrott, Ph.D.

Methodologist and Co-Investigator

Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies

School of Health Professions

parrotja@shp.rutgers.edu

Jessica Gomes, DHSc

Content Creator

Assistant Professor, Physician Assistant Studies

School of Health Professions

jessica.gomes@rutgers.edu

Stephanie Cochrane, Ed.D.

Co-Investigator and Content Creator

Assistant Professor, Clinical Laboratory and Medical Imaging Sciences

School of Health Professions

sbn26@rutgers.edu

Lisa Palladino-Kim, Ed.D.

Co-Investigator and Content Creator

Lecturer, Clinical Trial Sciences Program/Biopharma Educational Initiative

School of Health Professions

lisa.palladino.kim@rutgers.edu

Sunhee Eissenstat, Ph.D.

Content Creator

Associate Professor, Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling Professions

School of Health Professions

sj643@rutgers.edu

Joy Jia, Ph.D.

Methodologist and Co-Investigator

Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies

School of Health Professions

joy.y.jia@rutgers.edu

Filiz Carus Ozen

Content Creator

Instructional Designer

School of Health Professions

fc339@shp.rutgers.edu

Niamboue Bado

Content Creator

Instructional Designer

School of Health Professions

nb863@shp.rutgers.edu

Dasantila Sherifi

Content Creator

Assistant Professor

Heath Informatics, School of Health Professions

ds1729@shp.rutgers.edu

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