Dr. Boyers’ professional interest is to ensure that healthcare professionals (at all levels of training) are highly prepared to provide the safest possible patient care. This interest includes paying close attention to the well-being of healthcare professionals – and how they learn to work efficiently and effectively in healthcare teams.

Concerned with the escalating number of avoidable deaths due to medical error, Dr. Boyers focus is upon transforming the education of healthcare professionals through the adoption of modeling and simulation. She has provided national and global leadership in the concept of creating interprofessional simulation centers. This includes the design, staffing and operations of these centers as well as studying the return on investment. Her professional goals are to advance interprofessional collaboration and see healthcare move towards a competency-based model of training.  

Having served in medical education leadership positions at the University of North Carolina, The Ohio State University, OhioHealth and the University of Toledo, Dr. Boyers is currently leading efforts at The University of Nebraska Medical Center to “improve human performance and effectiveness in healthcare.” This involves creating the Davis Global Center in Omaha, NE. This 5-level facility houses an interprofessional simulation center that incorporates a replicated healthcare system – from home to hospital and back – where the transfer of patients and “hand-offs” can be practiced. The Davis Global Center also houses multiple modeling and simulation modalities including XReality (including holographic) technologies, thereby embracing modeling, simulation and visualization to stimulate new methods of teaching, learning and conducting research and development.

A lifelong medical educator with significant experience in designing and operating medical simulation centers, Dr. Boyers is well-published and speaks nationally and internationally about transforming the education of healthcare professionals. She enjoys collaborating with other high reliability organizations, including the military, to help identify best training practices related to improving quality, safety and lowering costs.