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Writer's pictureWendy Chapman

Validitron SimLab Open House

Updated: Sep 12, 2022

In September 2019, I spoke at the Health Informatics New Zealand (HINZ) conference, and I entered a cardboard house with a smart fridge and analytics about the patient's diabetes on the TV. Next door was a cardboard smart GP office, and I made the decision three weeks into my new job that I wanted to build something people could immerse themselves in to see the potential of informatics and digital health. Well, my plan and dream came true Thursday night at the Validitron SimLab Open House.


Daniel and I agreed the Validitron is the highlight of our careers thus far, and it was a so much fun to take people through the space to watch a simulated study using the Sandbox. Minister Jaala Pulford got a preview with Dean Jane Gunn and Heather St. John from RIC, Mike Roberts, director of Safer Care Victoria, and Ed Hovy, director of Melbourne Connect, came to the open house, Victor Pantano flew in from Canberra, and Mark Hargreaves brought Jim McCluskey to say hi. The tour amazed students, clinical collaborators, and friends from industry, as the lights went on in their heads about how the Validitron can bring digital health products to market more quickly, de-risk purchase of digital innovations by healthcare organizations, and support a new digital health clinical trials market.

I gave myself a lot of stress the night before, avoiding memorizing the lines for the tour (I'm much better once the adrenaline gets going), but Daniel and I had the easy part. Frank Smolenaers designed the SimLab. Kit was the star behind the scenes who built the digital sandbox, decorated the patient home with IKEA furniture he assembled, and even brought an iron for the hospital bed sheets. Michelle Joy and Chris Pahlow wrote new content for the website (validitron.com) and the script for the tour. Kara, Mahima, and Meg made multiple contributions and fine touches that included cookies with the Validitron tick, nametags, collaborative design props, and rolling invitations. And Libby Dai and Omar Ibrahim presented a really convincing GP telehealth visit and Hasan Ferdous did a great job playing himself, an HCI researcher. I think we will repeat the tour during work hours for all of you who missed it—any volunteer actors?


Regional Linguistic Quirks: Meredith pointed out it's not just white board markers that are called textas, and PulseIT News used a much more colorful word for "OK, fine, all right": tickety-boo! That's a new one for me.











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