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The medical profession has an established history of team-based approaches to managing the varying complexities of patients. Effective communication between team members has been recognized as a critical factor in safer healthcare delivery.[1] Multiple studies have highlighted the role of simulation-based training in healthcare settings that need rapid assessment, implementation of protocols, and efficient medical care delivery.[2] In medical simulation training, high-fidelity mannequins have also evolved. They can now provide physiologic feedback and have computer-generated programming to offer the appropriate pathologic findings and intervention responses.[3] Simulation-based training has been used in various professions and continues to be a teaching method in the medical field. Hospital-based emergencies that require a team-based approach are of interest to simulation professionals. These scenarios are examples of situations that need group input, standardization of algorithms, and effective delivery of the appropriate treatments.[4]

Simulation-based training has become an important and necessary field of education within the medical community. The need to use simulation with high-fidelity mannequins has become increasingly crucial in resuscitation training. Complex medical scenarios that require numerous personnel, such as ECMO simulation, can often be perceived as chaotic and loud. Utilizing simulation-based techniques to implement a curriculum can help streamline and assign roles in what may otherwise be a messy and physiologically complex situation. The goal would be to achieve a standardized approach to every step of the ECMO cannulation process - recognition of the proper candidates for ECMO therapy, checklists to ensure adequate equipment, a method to efficiently contact each member necessary, continuing resuscitation measures with minimal interruptions up until the patient is officially cannulated and on ECMO, and approaching mechanical issues to the ECMO circuit.

Simulation-based training is effective in multiple medical environments. With the rise of centers offering ECMO as therapy for patients with cardiac and respiratory failure, it has become increasingly important to standardize our approach to a patient needing this level of support.[5] There is still room for improvement in the outcomes of patients who require ECMO.[5] By developing an ECMO simulation curriculum that involves multiple disciplines, coordination between the teams could be improved. Placing a patient on ECMO, whether it is during cardiopulmonary resuscitation or not, can prove to be unorganized and stressful. This is where the simulation's role, with participation from each dedicated discipline, can help each team practice interprofessional communication and coordinate care to the same goal of successfully placing a patient on ECMO. The goals should be the same: to lower medical errors that can often happen in high-stress environments, improve outcomes of patients on ECMO as the time to placement, especially during CPR, could be lessened, and optimize team performance.  Research related to  ECMO simulation has shown improvement in cannulation time, setting up ECMO circuits, and improving the perception of team dynamics.[9][12][13]