Procedural simulation: a primer.

Procedural simulation will be a revolutionary change in how health care providers maintain their proficiency and skill. Visionary leaders are already examining how this educational technique will be integrated into traditional curricula, and interventional specialties will be at the leading edge of this revolution. The role must be defined that simulation will play, new educational models must be developed around it, and studies must be performed that will meet the demands of a skeptical profession. Only then will the first truly revolutionary change in medical learning have been achieved since the advent of animal experimentation nearly 1,000 years ago.