Roxane Gardner MD, MPH, MSHPE, DSC, has been a faculty member of the Center for Medical Simulation (CMS) since 2001, having served as the Executive Director of CMS from 2023-2026. Her current roles include Senior Director, Clinical Simulation Programs since 2015; and Director, Simulation Fellowship and International Scholars Program at CMS since 2014; and Director, Labor and Delivery Program at CMS since 2002.
She is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harvard Medical School, faculty member of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and the Division of Gynecology at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH). Her clinical practice centers on adolescent gynecology at Boston Children’s Hospital.
As Senior Director, Clinical Simulation Courses at CMS, she oversees the clinical simulation courses for faculty and residents, ensuring they adhere to high educational standards; and supervises a simulation elective for anesthesia residents and fellows. As Director, Simulation Fellowship and International Scholars Program, she supervises simulation fellows and scholars originating from countries around the world. As Director, Labor & Delivery Program, she designs and directs simulation-based team-training programs for labor and delivery clinicians. These interprofessional teamwork courses, launched in 2003, involve simulated cases that cultivate teamwork and communication skills of labor and delivery clinicians when managing high acuity, low frequency obstetrical events.
Her doctoral studies at Harvard’s School of Public Health focused on simulation, patient safety and assessment of team performance. Since obtaining a Doctor of Science in Health Policy and Management, she continues simulation-based education research aimed at improving teamwork and team performance of clinicians in a variety of settings. Roxane has led efforts to improve patient safety, reduce medical errors and adverse events by helping to implement web-based reporting systems on a system’s-wide basis; and helping to embed simulation, teamwork and communication in Labor and Delivery units across Harvard-affiliated hospitals. She promotes obstetrical patient safety initiatives sponsored by Harvard’s medical malpractice insurer, the Controlled Risk Insurance Company (CRICO) and served as their Associate Medical Director-Obstetrics, CRICO Patient Safety across the Harvard obstetrical community from 2004 to 2014.
Roxane is an active member of the Society of Simulation in Healthcare since its inception in 2004 and serves as an member of the Editorial Board at Simulation in Healthcare, Journal of the Society of Simulation in Healthcare.
Contact: [email protected]
Course Faculty:
Healthcare Simulation Essentials: Design and Debriefing
Labor & Delivery Clinical Teamwork Courses
Media:
Publications:
Association of Simulation Training With Rates of Medical Malpractice Claims Among Obstetrician-Gynecologists. Obstetrics and Gynecology (The Green Journal). 2021 08 01; 138(2):246-252. PMID: 34237759.
Cumulative sum learning curve for cordocentesis among maternal-fetal medicine fellows in a low-cost simulation model. Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 2024 Nov; 167(2):625-630. PMID: 38736305.
Clinical triggers and vital signs influencing crisis acknowledgment and calls for help by anesthesiologists: A simulation-based observational study. J Clin Anesth. 2023 11; 90:111235. PMID: 37633044.
Continuing professional development challenges in a rural setting: A mixed-methods study. Perspect Med Educ. 2022 10; 11(5):273-280. PMID: 35943696; PMCID: PMC9360663.
Office Patient Safety. Obstet Gynecol Clin North Am. 2019 Jun; 46(2):339-351. PMID: 31056135.
Simulation to Improve Trainee Knowledge and Comfort About Twin Vaginal Birth. Obstet Gynecol. 2016 Oct; 128 Suppl 1:34S-39S. PMID: 27662004.
Rapid Learning of Adverse Medical Event Disclosure and Apology. J Patient Saf. 2016 09; 12(3):140-7. PMID: 24583959.
Medical student simulation training in intrauterine contraception insertion and removal: an intervention to improve comfort, skill, and attitudes. Contracept Reprod Med. 2016; 1:3. PMID: 29201393; PMCID: PMC5675054.
Introduction to debriefing. Semin Perinatol. 2013 Jun; 37(3):166-74. PMID: 23721773.
Speaking across the drapes: communication strategies of anesthesiologists and obstetricians during a simulated maternal crisis. Simul Healthc. 2012 Jun; 7(3):166-70. PMID: 22569284.
Risks of complications by attending physicians after performing nighttime procedures. JAMA. 2009 Oct 14; 302(14):1565-72. PMID: 19826026.
Simulation in obstetrics and gynecology. Obstet Gynecol Clin North Am. 2008 Mar; 35(1):97-127, ix. PMID: 18319131.
Obstetric simulation as a risk control strategy: course design and evaluation. Simul Healthc. 2008; 3(2):119-27. PMID: 19088652.
Using the Communication and Teamwork Skills (CATS) Assessment to measure health care team performance. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2007 Sep; 33(9):549-58. PMID: 17915529.