Assessing and Improving Medical Competency: Using Strategic Management Simulations

Abstract

“Technology transfer” has become a popular concept at the National Institutes of Health and at universities, including medical schools, which engage in research. In most cases, this transfer means that an invention or novel methodology is provided to a different user of the technology. More rarely, the transfer occurs among different fields of research or between different fields of application. This article provides information about the transfer of simulation technology from one applied field to another, specifically from earlier work on managerial decision making to at least three fields within the realm of medicine. With the publication of this article, the authors hope to (a) encourage others to consider using existing technologies fromoutside of medicine to advance medicine (without having to expend the time and money that is often needed to develop novel technologies) and (b) show how a single technique can be applied across multiple aspects of medicine.