The Department of Defense (DoD) Medical Modeling and Simulation (MMS) acquisition and training communities are challenged in showing a return on investment (ROI) for training. In a for profit world, investments in training may result in increased productivity or improved quality, but tying these advances directly to the use of MMS training is difficult at best. In the DoD, where military readiness and cost reduction replace profit as the driving objective, training may increase readiness in exchange for increased cost. In the realm of medical training, increases in training generally save lives and improve patient outcomes. In for profit medical care, it may be possible to show how improvements made through training resulted in monetary benefits, such as increased profitability. However, in DoD healthcare it is preferable to show how improved training resulted in non-monetary benefits, such as improved patient outcomes. This paper considers the non-monetary benefits of training by exploring how improvements in patient outcomes can be measured and used to calculate ROI for MMS.
Drawing from traditional ROI calculations and alternative ROI models, such as the Kirkpatrick method, and Multi Attribute Decision Methodology MADM), this paper quantifies ROI for MMS within the Defense Health Agency (DHA) using real-life scenarios and outcomes from the medical training community. We explore the challenges of pulling historical benefit data and provide recommendations for gathering benefits and measuring changes over time based on real medical training experiences.