Rethinking Feedback: Connecting Learners and Educators Through Simulation - An Interview with Dr Julián Varas Cohen

We’re back with a new season of the KIPRIME Podcast, exploring the ideas shaping the future of medical education.In this first episode, host Alina Jenkins speaks with Dr Julián Varas Cohen, a surgeon and Associate Professor at the Catholic de Chile in Santiago, Chile. He leads simulation-based medical education research, using remote asynchronous feedback to accelerate healthcare skill acquisition.He has developed and validated various training methodologies, reaching more than 40,000 trainees across 1000 skill-based disciplines (surgery, nursing, gastronomy, and engineering) in 13 countries. He now integrates AI to enhance teaching and scale accessibility to high-quality training. He has partnered with over 20 institutions, like MUHAS in Tanzania and UCSF, to expand high-quality, evidence-based training throughout America and Africa. His mission is to promote equitable access to simulation education and mentor the next generation of clinician-educators.Their conversation delves into the power of feedback and how it helps learners grow, how technology is changing the way it’s delivered, and why creating equitable access to medical training remains at the heart of his mission.