Debra Nestel is Professor of Simulation Education in Healthcare, Monash University, and Professor of Surgical Education, Department of Surgery, University of Melbourne, Australia. Debra was previously Editor-in-Chief (EIC), BMJ Simulation and Technology Enhanced Learning (STEL), and founding EIC, Advances in Simulation. She is program lead for the Graduate Programs in Clinical Simulation (Monash University) and the Graduate Programs in Surgical Education (University of Melbourne). Debra leads a national faculty development program for simulation practitioners – NHET-Sim (www.nhet-sim.edu.au). In 2021, Debra received the award of Member of the Order of Australia for her service to healthcare simulation. She has received other national awards for her work in healthcare simulation and a Presidential Citation from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. Debra has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers in health professions education, edited books on simulated patient methodology (2015), healthcare simulation (2017), surgical education (2019) and research methods for healthcare simulation (2019) https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Debra_Nestel
Latest News
We’re delighted to share some exciting news with you: Super Early Bird for the main conference registration is now officially open, and ASPiH Members have exclusive early access ahead of the wider community.
If you aren’t yet an ASPiH member make sure you sign up to membership before completing your conference registration, to take advantage of the cheapest conference rates and a whole host of other benefits.
ASPiH membership places you at the centre of a vibrant, collaborative network of simulation professionals who are shaping the future of health and social care education. This early access to the main conference is one of the ways we recognise your contribution and commitment to advancing best practice across the field.
By securing your place now, you’ll benefit from:
• Our lowest available conference rates
• Priority access to networking opportunities with peers, experts and industry partners, and a highly anticipated programme of speakers, and workshops which will revolve around our central Theme "simulation the next era".
Your involvement helps drive shared learning, inspire new ideas, and strengthen the impact of simulation in healthcare education across the UK and beyond.
We encourage you to take advantage of this exclusive member benefit and secure your place early.
• The Super Early Bird rate includes the main conference. Pre-conference workshops are not included.
• The social event will be sent as a separate registration process and might incur in additional fees.
We look forward to welcoming you and continuing this journey together.
Book now: https://fitwise.eventsair.com/aspih2026/
Conference Key Dates:
• Abstract Submission: Now open
• Member Delegate registration: Now open
• Abstract submission deadline: 28 April (midnight)
• Member Super EarlyBird Registration ends 30th April (BST at midnight)
We look forward to welcoming you to Harrogate later this year!
The call for abstracts is now open for ASPiH Conference 2026! ASPiH conference is one of the leading simulation events in Europe, attracting professionals, simulationists, commercial colleagues, and students across a wide range of health and social care fields. Abstract submission deadline: 28th April (midnight). All abstracts must be submitted online using the electronic abstract portal on the conference website: https://fitwise.eventsair.com/aspih2026/event-abstracts
The ASPiH 2025 Conference brought together over 1,000 participants from 26 countries across four continents, highlighting the Association’s growing international reach. Among them were 380 first-time delegates, warmly welcomed into the ASPiH community.
On 27 November 2025, RCSI SIM Centre for Simulation Education and Research (RCSI SIM) held its first “RCSI SIMposium: Simulation & Innovation Gathering” at 26 York Street, Dublin, Ireland. The event opened with a welcome from Professor Claire Condron, and the SIMposium offered a day-long forum to explore how simulation can drive innovation in medical devices.
The S3 Conference 2025, hosted by the SingHealth Duke-NUS Institute of Medical Simulation (SIMS) and co-organised with SESAM and SimGHOSTS, welcomed more than 500 delegates from across the Asia–Pacific region in one of its most successful editions to date.
At JoHS, we value a global reach in simulation practices. This recent conference in Lanzhou, Gansu province identified the extraordinary scale on which many simulation practices are implemented in China.
Useful links
Indexing
The Journal of Healthcare Simulation - Advances in Theory & Practice (JoHS) is a single-blind peer-reviewed open access journal.
The journal is a member of Crossref and is actively exploring opportunities for inclusion in the leading scientific indexes. Each article is given a unique digital object identifier (DOI), these are shared with the scientific community through channels including Crossref and Google Scholar.
Official Journal of
Journal of Healthcare Simulation is the official journal of the Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare