Happy American Heart Month, my simulationist friends and colleagues.

First, I just want to say what an honor it is to serve as SSH President this year. I stand on the shoulder of giants and look forward to supporting our organization and most importantly, all of you, our members.

I know everyone is incredibly busy doing critically important work for our students, systems, and patients, but please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have any suggestions or questions at haru.okuda@yahoo.com. I would love to hear from you.

Second, I want to thank all of those who supported and/or attended (face-to-face or virtual) IMSH 2022 last month, in Los Angeles, California. What an incredible week of exchanging ideas, collaboration, connecting, learning, sharing, healing, and innovating. I was inspired by so many peoples' passion, excitement, and strength.

Thank you to our virtual audience who were engaged through zoom, social media, and other virtual means and our wonderful SSH staff and leadership who made it all possible.

IMSH 2022 was especially meaningful to me because we were able to celebrate the life of my good friend, colleague and SSH past president, Chad Epps, whose impact in healthcare simulation will last for decades through his kindness, generosity, mentorship, and advocacy.  Thank you, Paul Phrampus, for giving the inaugural Chad Epps Endowed Lecture to honor Chad’s legacy, addressing the importance of patient safety in simulation.    

Finally, I wanted to give you all a little preview on what’s coming ahead.

In the coming months, our SSH Board of Directors will be working on our new five-year strategic plan, focused on our purpose, “to serve a global community of practice enhancing the quality of healthcare.”

Because of the global pandemic, and the many uncertainties that we faced, we had put a pause on updating our 2015-2020 SSH strategic plan. Now, as the world emerges from the pandemic and learns to live with COVID-19, it is critical for SSH and our members to forge a new path ahead in partnership with our affiliated organizations, industry partners, and broader simulation community. If you have ideas that you would like to be considered as part of our future strategic planning, please let me know. We will be incorporating the feedback we received from our members, through our SSH member survey we sent out last year.

Thank you again for the opportunity to serve you all. Keep up the amazing work that you are doing and look forward to meeting and learning from each of you one day. If you are on social media, I would love to connect to learn all the incredible things you are doing to support your students and patients.  Find me on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and feel free to DM me.

Happy Simulating!

Haru Okuda, MD, FACEP
SSH President