• Program Leader, Simulation

Institution: MGH

• Associate Professor of Radiology at Harvard
• Director, The SIMGroup

Background:
Dr. Steve Dawson received his medical degree from Tufts University in 1978 and then completed his radiology residency and a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in Interventional Radiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He previously served as the head of the Abdominal Interventional Radiology fellowship at MGH and remains an active clinical Interventional Radiologist at MGH. He is an Associate Professor of Radiology at Harvard Medical School.

In 1993, four MGH physicians, Dr. Dawson, Dr. David Rattner, Dr. Norman Nishioka, and Dr. Keith Isaacson were instrumental in organizing the Center for Innovative Minimally Invasive Therapy, CIMIT, and now known as the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology.

Dr. Dawson’s vision for the future includes the concept that no patient will be the first case for any caregiver and that one day, we will learn to treat a condition before we encounter a person who is ill with the disease. Dr. Dawson heads a team of researchers called The SIMGroup, which is a national leader in creating new simulation systems for procedural education. The Group have received several awards, including the first annual Edward M. Kennedy Award for Health Care Innovation in October, 2003; a 2003 Top Ten Greatest Inventions Award from the United States Army; the 10th Annual Satava Award at MMVR 2004; and the Partners in Excellence Award for Leadership and Innovation in 2004 and 2007. The Group’s work was selected for the permanent collection of the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, DC, and has been shown at medical meetings in the White House and the US Senate, as well as being featured on radio and television broadcasts.

In 2004, Steve founded the Advanced Initiatives in Medical Simulation, a 501 c 6 non-profit dedicated to enhancing knowledge about the role simulation plays in healthcare training among public policy makers, and he leads the annual meeting of AIMS in May each year in Washington, DC.  He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, and is an advisor to the RSNA, the ACR, the SIR, CIRSE, the ACC and the AAOS on simulation training matters.