Background: Educating physicians and other health care professionals about the identification and treatment of patients who drink more than recommended limits is an ongoing challenge.Methods: An educational randomized controlled trial was conducted to test the ability of a standalone training simulation to improve the clinical skills of health care professionals in alcohol screening and intervention. The "virtual reality simulation" combined video, voice recognition, and nonbranching logic to create an interactive environment that allowed trainees to encounter complex social cues and realistic interpersonal exchanges. The simulation included 707 questions and statements and 1207 simulated patient responses.Results: A sample of 102 health care professionals (10 physicians; 30 physician assistants or nurse practitioners; 36 medical students; 26 pharmacy, physican assistant, or nurse practitioner students) were randomly assigned to a no training group (n ‫؍‬ 51) or a computer-based virtual reality intervention (n ‫؍‬ 51). Professionals in both groups had similar pretest standardized patient alcohol screening skill scores: 53.2 (experimental) vs 54.4 (controls), 52.2 vs 53.7 alcohol brief intervention skills, and 42.9 vs 43.5 alcohol referral skills. After repeated practice with the simulation there were significant increases in the scores of the experimental group at 6 months after randomization compared with the control group for the screening (67.7 vs 58.1; P < .001) and brief intervention (58.3 vs 51.6; P < .04) scenarios.Conclusions: The technology tested in this trial is the first virtual reality simulation to demonstrate an increase in the alcohol screening and brief intervention skills of health care professionals.

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is notable for severely impaired reciprocal social interaction skills relative to language and intellectual abilities, presenting a major barrier to social integration and vocational success. Evidence-based interventions to address these needs are lacking. We report on the development of a small, prototype conversation simulation to teach conversational skills to adolescents and adults with ASD and average to superior intellectual abilities. We also report on a test of the feasibility and acceptability of the simulation approach with a sample of the target population. The simulation engages the user in a virtual conversation with an on-screen partner whose reactions provide naturalistic feedback geared to the appropriateness of the learner's response choices. The prototype simulation, which provides for up to 12 potentially unique multi-turn conversations, was used over a period of 2 weeks by 16 adolescents and adults who then rated statements about the system on a linear scale of 1 (disagreement) to 5 (high agreement). The participants highly endorsed the majority of positive statements about the quality and credibility of the interaction and the virtual conversation partner. In contrast, agreement with positive statements about instructional features external to the conversation was moderate. Unexpectedly, most participants strongly agreed that using the simulation had been helpful to them. Further development and testing in the context of a controlled study with randomized assignment to control and experimental groups are needed to determine whether this approach is effective in improving realworld pragmatic language behavior of high-functioning adults with ASD.

The purpose of the Integrated Rollout Project Plan Modeling Tool is to provide a consistent approach to develop rollout plans for a variety of projects and to provide a program management tool to manage key program office analysis and reporting requirements during rollout. The tool captures those attributes that differentiate the rollout at one location from the next and dynamically builds each individual plan to reflect those different attributes. The tool was can collect inputs and dependencies across various functional groups including: Accounting, HR, Manufacturing, Quality, Shipping, Marketing, etc.