Speaker
Speaker Info
- Name
- Uli Strauch
- Organization
- Maastricht University Medical Centre +
- Country
- The Netherlands
- Biography
- With a clinical background as an Anaesthesiologist-Intensivist, Uli has been engaged in simulation-based education for more than 15 years. Since 2015, he has served as Director of the Simulation Center at Maastricht University Medical Center+ (the Netherlands). He is past president of the Dutch Society for Simulation in Healthcare (DSSH) and was /is actively involved within SESAM in various roles, including past treasurer, member of the Accreditation SIG, and member of the educational committee. Recently Uli has been appointed as lifetime honorary member of SESAM. Uli is also a Master’s student in Health Professions Education (SHE, Maastricht University), where he further explores the theoretical foundations of health professions education and their practical implications. His main academic focus lies in the strong interconnectivity between transfer of learning and faculty development. He is particularly interested in how faculty development initiatives can be designed to enhance meaningful transfer from simulation settings to clinical practice. In this context, he initiated and co-developed a national lifelong learning program for simulation educators (simnext.org) in the Netherlands. Uli strongly believes that intensified collaboration in simulation-based education is essential to address workforce shortages and to collectively drive a paradigm shift in healthcare education.
Photo
- Photo
Presentation Info
- Title
- The DSSH Quality Label for Serious Games: Advancing Validity and Transparency
- Summary
- Serious games are widely used in healthcare for training, education, and behavior change. While their potential is clear, demonstrating quality and effectiveness remains a challenge for both developers and end-users. Variability in design approaches and limited transparency about underlying evidence often make it difficult to assess which games are truly fit for purpose. To address this gap, the Dutch Society for Simulation in Healthcare (DSSH) developed a quality label (keurmerk) for serious games in health. This label is based on a structured framework that evaluates games across key domains including purpose, functionality, validity, and data safety . Central to the approach is a five-star rating system, reflecting increasing levels of design maturity, user involvement, and validation—from initial concept and plausibility to demonstrated real-world impact. In this session, we will present how the framework works in practice, what is required to achieve different star levels, and how developers can use it as a roadmap to improve their products. We will also share insights into the number of awarded labels and their distribution across star categories. For developers, the label offers concrete guidance on how to strengthen design and validation. For users, educators, and healthcare professionals, it provides a transparent tool to select high-quality serious games. By bridging development, research, and implementation, the DSSH quality label supports a more robust and trustworthy serious games ecosystem in the health care sector.
- Keynote
- Presentation
- GFHEU Year
- 2026
Info
- Info