Is There an Educator on This Flight!? Using Forum Theater to Dynamize Your Didactics (Simulation Academy-Sponsored)

This course will introduce the principles of forum theater for medical simulation, providing an engaging alternative to traditional didactics and small group simulations. The team will demonstrate this method through a simulated in-flight emergency case for a large audience. Forum theater involves using clinical experts as participants to perform a scripted case, incorporating reflective pauses for audience engagement and debriefing. The session will cover how to design case scenarios, the strategic insertion of reflective pauses, and the benefits and challenges of this methodology. Additionally, we will explore how forum theater can be an effective tool for impressing stakeholders in medical education.

Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this session, participants should be able to:
  • Describe the strengths and weaknesses of medical simulation for a large group audience.
  • Describe the principles of forum theater to utilize different techniques of scenario design and debriefing to engage audience members.
  • Describe the lessons learned from development of medical simulation scenarios for forum theater to create dynamic alternatives to traditional didatics.

Presenters:

  • Debayan Guha, MD
  • Maninder Singh, MD
  • Thomas J. Kardashian-Sieger, MD
  • Jennifer Melgar, MD
Authors

  • Debayan Guha, MD

    Jacobi Medical Center

    Debayan Guha is a simulation-trained, Emergency Medicine faculty at Jacobi Medical Center, and Clinical Instructor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. His interests include global health, distance simulation, graduate and undergraduate medical education.
  • ManinderSingh

    Maninder Singh, MD

    Jacobi Medical Center

    Maninder Singh is an Associate Professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and is currently Director of Healthcare Simulation at Jacobi Medical Center and North Central Bronx. He completed a simulation fellowship at the Institute for Medical Simulation and Learning at the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation. He is a graduate of the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education and SUNY Downstate. He completed his Emergency Medicine residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine//Jacobi + Montefiore Medical Center, where he joined as faculty after completing his chief resident year. He is also the Simulation and Education Fellowship Director at Jacobi Medical Center. His professional interests include resident education, resuscitation, simulation, and trauma. He is a part of the AllNYCEM SIMWars Committee and helps organize a yearly simulation competition amongst various emergency medicine residencies in NY.

  • Thomas J. Kardashian-Sieger, MD

    Jacobi Medical Center

    Thomas Kardashian-Sieger is a Simulation Fellow and Attending Physician in the Emergency Department at Jacobi Medical Center and North Central Bronx Hospital. He graduated from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in 2021, and completed residency in Emergency Medicine at Maimonides Medical Center in 2024. His professional interests within simulation include Rapid Cycle Deliberate Practice and the use of VR and other electronic learning media in medical education. Outside of medicine he enjoys playing the piano, arranging/composing music, playing video games, and foreign languages.

  • Jennifer Melgar, MD

    Jacobi Medical Center

    Jennifer Melgar is currently a Simulation Fellow and Emergency Medicine Physician at Jacobi Medical Center/North Central Bronx. She graduated from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, and completed residency at Northwell Health (North shore/Long Island Jewish) Hospitals. Her professional interests include resident education and simulation. In her free time she enjoys hiking, traveling to new countries and national parks, beach days, and walking dogs.

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