In this episode of 33 Conversations, Michael Abney speaks with Shannon Scandozza, a virtual clinical simulation designer, healthcare educator, patient advocate, and founder of Inspirational By Design.

Shannon’s work focuses on building psychologically safe, cost-efficient clinical simulation environments where healthcare learners can practice communication, make mistakes, receive feedback, and prepare for real patient care before lives are at risk.

Together, Michael and Shannon explore virtual patient simulation, AI patient avatars, healthcare education, patient advocacy, provider burnout, medical communication, and the deeper human issues inside healthcare systems.

This episode is for healthcare educators, nurses, medical students, patient advocates, founders, and anyone who has ever felt small, confused, or powerless inside a medical setting.

It is worth listening to because it offers a hopeful but grounded view of how healthcare can become more human: not by pretending the system is fine, but by training people differently, building safer spaces, and refusing to wait for permission to solve problems that are already visible.