July 2026

CARDIOVASCULAR

IMPLEMENTING SIMULATION-BASED LEARNING TO IMPROVE SELF-CARE FOR CHRONIC HEART DISEASE

Featuring: Jeffrey Barsuk, MD, MS, ​Jane Wilcox, MD, MSc
Northwestern Medicine investigators have received an R01 research grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to evaluate a simulation-based mastery learning (SBML) curriculum to help patients and their caregivers improve self-care for VADs.

Identifying Opportunities for Improvement
No standardized training exists for patients and caregivers to ensure VAD self-care skills are adequately developed, says Jeffrey Barsuk, MD, a co-PI of the project.

The SBML curriculum will be implemented, and investigators will evaluate the curriculum’s impact on patients’ health-related quality of life, driveline exit site infections and rehospitalizations.

“One of the most exciting aspects of this project has been building a consortium of eight leading LVAD and heart transplant centers across the United States, whose investigators are united by a shared commitment to improving care for some of our most vulnerable patients,” says Jane Wilcox, MD, a co-PI of the project.

​Building on Research-Backed Practices
The research will build on a previous pilot study led by Dr. Barsuk, which showed that VAD self-care SBML for patients and caregivers improved skills and reduced patient driveline exit-site infections compared to traditional training.

​“When we use SBML to train clinicians, we repeatedly show that the trainee reaches the highest level of skill achievable before working with actual patients,” Dr. Barsuk explains. “In fact, many residency programs and a few medical schools, including Northwestern, now use the mastery learning model to ensure their learners are ready for actual patient practice.”

Study May Offer Standardized and Scalable Approach
The project may also standardize how patients and their caregivers are trained to perform complex self-care tasks. “We hope this study will not only improve outcomes for participating patients but also provide a scalable playbook that other programs can adopt to enhance care and quality of life for patients nationwide,” Dr. Wilcox says.

​This article was originally published in Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine News Center on July 31, 2026.
Jeffrey Barsuk, MD, MS, the Robert Hirschtick Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicine and of Medical Education.
​Jane Wilcox, MD, MSc, Associate Professor of Cardiology and Associate Chief of Cardiology.

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