News from
"Learning together, from each other, about each other" is the motto of the newly founded Institute for Interprofessional Simulation in Medicine at Leipzig University. It aims to create the basis for medical training that optimally prepares students for the increasing complexity of modern healthcare professions - practical, team-oriented and scientifically sound. The new institute was officially inaugurated at the Faculty of Medicine on September 16 and is linked to the newly created professorship "Simulation in Medicine with a Focus on Didactics in Interprofessional Teaching".
The students sit behind an observation screen, tense and focused. In the training room next door, a patient is lying on the operating table - but he is not a real patient, but a professionally trained simulator. Today, part of the group, consisting of trainee doctors, nursing staff and midwives, is to work together as a team to master an acute emergency situation while being observed through the screen by other trainees. Everyone contributes their knowledge, everyone takes responsibility - and at the same time gets to know the perspectives and working methods of the other healthcare professions. Such scenarios are already established at the University of Leipzig, but in future they are to receive even more scientific support, be systematically developed and anchored in the curriculum.
the new Institute for Interprofessional Simulation in Medicine will strengthen interdisciplinary cooperation in teaching and research. Close networking with educational science, philology and psychology is planned, which will further enhance the prestigious medical studies at Leipzig University," said Brigitte Latzko, Vice-Rector for Talent Development: Studies and Teaching, Leipzig University, at the inauguration in the Faculty of Medicine’s Study Center. The Institute for Interprofessional Simulation in Medicine (IISIM) officially began its work at the inauguration ceremony on September 16.
Understanding other professions better
It follows the guiding principle of British educational researcher Hugh Barr, who formulated the basic idea of interprofessional teaching "Learning with, from and about each other" back in the 1990s. we want students from different areas of healthcare to practice together from the outset, benefit from each other and better understand the work of the other professional groups. We want to train real team players for the safety of patients," explains Daisy Rotzoll. She has been a newly appointed professor for "Simulation in medicine with a focus on didactics in interprofessional teaching" and head of the new institute since February 2025.
IISIM’s first research projects are in the field of health science and digitalization, including in cooperation with the Innovation Center for Computer-Assisted Surgery (ICCAS). An expert board made up of researchers from various disciplines supports the institute in its scientific development.
The long-established LernKlinik Leipzig - the Faculty of Medicine’s skills and simulation center - is affiliated with the IISIM. It offers students the opportunity to train practical skills in a protected environment before they are used at the patient’s bedside. With realistic simulators and a constantly growing pool of over 30 trained simulators, medical scenarios can be tested here realistically and in a protected environment.
The LernKlinik also relies heavily on the qualification of student tutors: over 40 students of healthcare professions are already part of the program, which works according to the "train-the-trainer" approach and is constantly being expanded. There is a compulsory "Erasmus week" for international students, during which the student tutors give courses to prepare the 25-35 medical students from abroad each year for bedside teaching. Practical clinical skills are practiced in simulation, which are relevant to examination courses at the hospital.
