HealthStream and Laerdal Medical Launch SimManager™, a Comprehensive, Easy-to-Use Application for Managing Healthcare Simulation Education Programs

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--Through their collaborative arrangement, SimVentures, HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ: HSTM), a leading provider of learning and research solutions for the healthcare industry, and Laerdal Medical (“Laerdal”), a global leader in the provision of educational solutions for healthcare providers and educators, today announced the launch of SimManager™, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) application that is used for managing simulation-based training. SimManager is being debuted in San Diego, California at the International Meeting for Simulation in Healthcare, which is being held January 27 – February 1, 2012. SimManager is immediately available for healthcare organizations.

“Simulation is unique in that it allows healthcare institutions to practice critical, lifesaving procedures in a safe, standardized, and repeatable environment. With SimManager, implementing and managing simulation programs is greatly simplified, making this powerful learning methodology easier to adopt.”

“Utilization of simulation training among healthcare organizations and educational institutions is rapidly intensifying — and for good reason,” said Tor Morten Osmundsen, Chief Executive Officer of Laerdal Medical. “Simulation is unique in that it allows healthcare institutions to practice critical, lifesaving procedures in a safe, standardized, and repeatable environment. With SimManager, implementing and managing simulation programs is greatly simplified, making this powerful learning methodology easier to adopt.”

The increased focus on patient safety has stimulated a booming interest in healthcare training through simulation. Many simulation-related processes remain labor-intensive, and education managers are often already resource challenged. SimManager simplifies administrative tasks; it is a comprehensive application for managing all aspects of a simulation-based training program. Scheduling training, assigning learning activities, coordinating instructor schedules, tracking progress, delivering reports, and managing the logistics of simulation rooms and equipment are all streamlined through the use of SimManager.

Some of the specific capabilities of SimManager include:

• Ability to manage simulation rooms, equipment, instructors, and technicians
• Can track, manage, and report
• Schedule and assign simulation learning activities
• Manage simulation content
• Integrates simulation scenarios into learning curricula
• Can customize role management to create varying access levels for administrators
• Configure and schedule reports for simulator utilization and activity
• Upload and store simulator debriefing files
• Capture simulation activity on learner transcripts
• Integrates with Laerdal simulators
• Integrates with SimCenter product suite, including SimStore, SimDeveloper, and SimManager

As a system for managing simulation-based training and education programs, SimManager is a complete, single source solution. When SimManager is chosen by healthcare organizations using the HealthStream Learning Center™ (HLC), there are added benefits. Approximately half of U.S. hospitals currently utilize the HLC to deliver and track online training programs and manage classroom-based educational activities for approximately 2.7 million healthcare professionals. When SimManager is added as an extension to the HLC, all of the core learning features and capabilities in the HLC are made available, providing a powerful toolset for simulation-based training that is already familiar to HLC users.

For more information about SimManager, you may contact HealthStream at 800-933-9293 or Laerdal Medical at 845-297-7770.

About SimVentures

SimVentures is a collaborative arrangement between HealthStream (NASDAQ: HSTM) and Laerdal Medical Corporation that offers products and services aimed at accelerating the global adoption of simulation-based learning by healthcare providers—with a focus on improving clinical competencies and patient outcomes. Its flagship product is SimCenter™, a comprehensive, software-as-a-service based simulation management platform. SimCenter is comprised of four components: (1) SimView™, an audio/video data capture/debriefing system; (2) SimStore™, a web-based e-commerce site that makes simulation content available for downloading; (3) SimDeveloper™, an online software developer’s toolkit for scenario developers to create simulation content; and (4) SimManager™, an application used for managing simulation-based training programs. For more information, visit http://www.healthstream.com and http://www.laerdal.com.

About HealthStream

HealthStream (NASDAQ: HSTM) is a leading provider of learning and research solutions for the healthcare industry, delivering outcomes-based results for healthcare organizations. Through HealthStream’s learning solutions—which have been contracted by approximately 2.7 million hospital-based healthcare professionals—healthcare organizations create safer environments for patients, increase clinical competencies of their workforces, and facilitate the rapid transfer of the latest knowledge and technologies. Through our research products, healthcare organizations gain valuable insight about patients’ experiences, workforce challenges, physician relations, and community perceptions of their services. Based in Nashville, Tennessee, HealthStream has an additional office in Laurel, Maryland. For more information about HealthStream’s learning and research solutions, visit http://www.healthstream.com or call us at 800-933-9293.

About Laerdal Medical

Laerdal Medical, one of the world’s leading providers of healthcare solutions, is dedicated to helping save lives with products and services for Simulation, Airway Management, Immobilization, Basic Life Support, Advanced Life Support, Patient Care, Self-directed Learning, and Medical Education. Laerdal is pleased to serve all healthcare providers and educators, from the lay rescuer to the medical professionals. Laerdal operates sales and support offices in 23 countries, worldwide, and with the head office located in Stavanger, Norway. For more information, visit www.laerdal.com or call 877-523-7325.

This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In this press release we make forward-looking statements about our use of capital. These statements are necessarily subject to risk and uncertainty and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated due to various factors, including those set forth from time to time in the Company’s filings with the SEC. You should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and the Company undertakes no obligation to update any such statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the dates on which the forward-looking statements are made.