Healthcare and Military Simulation in Orlando

Orlando has two simulation training clusters: healthcare simulation at Lake Nona (UCF College of Medicine) and military modeling, simulation and training around the Central Florida Research Park beside UCF (Navy Region Southeast).

The City of Orlando names modeling, simulation and training, alongside digital media and life sciences, as one of the high-tech industries regional leaders have worked to grow to diversify the Orlando economy (City of Orlando). The two clusters train different people. At Lake Nona, medical students, residents, nurses and VA clinicians practice on mannequins, virtual patients and standardized patients. Near UCF, Navy, Army, Marine Corps and Air Force offices develop training systems for military programs.

At Lake Nona, the UCF College of Medicine runs a 7,500 square foot Clinical Skills and Simulation Center with sixteen exam rooms at 6850 Lake Nona Blvd., Suite 317 (UCF College of Medicine).

Every exam room in the Lake Nona center is video compatible and has an instructor viewing station behind one-way glass, and the center uses training simulators and medical mannequins to teach clinical assessment skills such as heart, lung and bowel sounds, venipuncture and catheterization (UCF Clinical Skills and Simulation Center). The standardized patient program employs over one hundred standardized patients, people trained to play patients in teaching and testing sessions.

The UCF center serves an average of three hundred medical students each week during the academic year and also trains residents, nurses and physicians from other medical institutions (UCF College of Medicine). Outside groups must book through the center coordinator and have a memorandum of understanding or contract in place, and the Simulation Lab itself is never open to extramural activities. The front desk number is 407-266-1153.

The VHA SimLEARN National Simulation Center, built on the Orlando VA Medical Center campus in the Lake Nona Medical City, develops national simulation-based training curricula and sets standards for simulation training across a network of VA medical facilities (VA SimLEARN).

SimLEARN lists its Orlando activities as national simulation-based training curricula, national policies and standards for simulation training across the network of VA medical facilities, train-the-trainer programs, serious games, virtual environments and virtual patients, and advanced surgical training on virtual reality simulators (VHA SimLEARN). It also runs Interprofessional Advanced Fellowships in Clinical Simulation and manages the VHA Resuscitation Education Initiative, known as REdI, with the American Heart Association for internal Basic Life Support and Advanced Cardiac Life Support certification.

The VA campus address is 13800 Veterans Way, Orlando, FL 32827-5812 (Orlando VA Medical Center). SimLEARN notes that a variety of federal simulation research offices are in close proximity at the UCF campus, which it says creates opportunities for research in new simulation technologies and methods (VA SimLEARN).

Military simulation in Orlando centers on Naval Support Activity Orlando, a 40-acre Navy facility that supports all Defense Department activities in Central Florida, most of which support military training and simulation missions (Navy Region Southeast).

NSA Orlando was established on October 1, 2003 to serve the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division, which moved to its current Orlando location in 1988 and is the Navy principal center for modeling, simulation and training systems (NSA Orlando). NAWCTSD develops training systems for aircraft, surface ships, submarines and other specialized requirements, and the Navy calls it one of the principal foundations of the Orlando Central Florida Research Park (Navy Region Southeast).

The Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation is a major NSA Orlando tenant, and the Navy lists the Marine Corps Program Manager for Training Systems, the Army SFC Paul Ray Smith Simulation and Training Technology Center, the Orlando office of the Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation and the Navy Human Performance Center Orlando as other major supported organizations adjacent to NSA Orlando (Navy Region Southeast). The Army office now goes by Capability Program Executive Simulation, Training, Test and Threat, or CPE ST3, and its soldiers joined a weekly joint colors ceremony aboard NSA Orlando on Sept. 30, 2026 (U.S. Army CPE ST3).

The Central Florida Research Park, located adjacent to UCF, covers 1,027 acres with 68 buildings, more than 140 companies and more than 9,500 employees, and its office is at 12424 Research Parkway, Suite 100, Orlando, phone (407) 282-3944 (Central Florida Research Park).

UCF trains the Orlando simulation workforce through its School of Modeling, Simulation and Training, established in 2018, which houses the Institute for Simulation and Training (UCF).

UCF reports that the School of Modeling, Simulation and Training has awarded more than 550 graduate degrees and that the Institute for Simulation and Training has served as a university research arm for more than 40 years (UCF Modeling and Simulation). The same page lists Nursing MSN (Simulation), Healthcare Simulation and a Modeling and Simulation MS among its online modeling and simulation programs, and a Modeling and Simulation PhD among its graduate degrees.

IST describes four decades of research in modeling, simulation and training tools, and it hosts Plug In Orlando presentation nights on November 5 and December 3, 2026 at 5:00 pm (UCF Institute for Simulation and Training).

The BLS Economy at a Glance page has no separate simulation line, but the Orlando metro had 207.1 thousand jobs in education and health services and 281.4 thousand in professional and business services in August 2026, both preliminary (BLS).

Total nonfarm employment in the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford metro was 1,508.3 thousand in August 2026, preliminary, and the metro unemployment rate was 4.6 percent in August 2026, also preliminary (BLS Economy at a Glance).

Orlando simulation figures need care because the official pages measure different things. The Central Florida Research Park counts more than 9,500 employees in the park (CFRP), while UCF cites 60,000 or more people employed in the park affiliated with the military and $11.6 billion in statewide economic impact from modeling, simulation and training sales activity (UCF). The two counts differ and the sources do not reconcile them; UCF also lists 150 companies in the park, while the park itself lists more than 140.

The Navy NSA Orlando page still uses the older name Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation for the Army tenant (Navy Region Southeast), while the Army site now uses CPE ST3 (U.S. Army). Searches for Orlando Army simulation contracts should try both names.