New Legislation Gives National Mandate to Modeling and Simulation Field

In 2005, Forbes served as an honorary cohost for the Advanced Initiatives in Medical Simulation Meeting (AIMS), which was aimed at promoting medical simulation as a way to improve patient safety, reduce medical errors, train medical professionals, and reduce health care costs (see Scerbo, 2005). The meeting included an exhibition of medical M&S technology on Capitol Hill and provided congressional leaders and staffers with hands-on demonstrations
and information about the need for this technology in health care.

Forbes has served as a cohost of the AIMS meeting each year since 2005, and in 2006 he was joined by more than 140 of his colleagues in the House and Senate who supported the event. In February 2006, Forbes convened the first M&S Annual Leadership Summit in Suffolk, Virginia, followed by a Caucus Panel Discussion at the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education (I/ITSEC) meeting in Orlando in December. The goal of the summit was to bring together leaders in the M&S arena from industry, government, and academia to address the technology, business practices, and industrial and workforce
development issues needed for growing the M&S sector.