The Digital Patient Project Team

Digital Patient Project Team
(in alphabetical order)

Bob Armstrong serves in several roles at Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences (VHS) at Old Dominion University (ODU) in Norfolk, Virginia. He is Executive Director of the Sentara Center for Healthcare Simulation and Immersive Learning, where he administers a workforce of 26 full-time and 185 part-time employees — staff, educators, technicians, and standardized patients — delivering more than 700 courses annually through an ACS-accredited Education Institute and SSH-accredited program serving over 100 external academic and hospital partners. He is also Program Director for the National Center for Collaboration in Medical Modeling and Simulation (NCCMMS), responsible for collaborative partnerships, personnel management, integration, and external funding, and VHS Director of Corporate Relations, focused on creating commercial outlets for VHS-generated research, development, and services. He holds a faculty appointment as Assistant Professor.

Bob is a Fellow of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare, where he served on the Board of Directors, served as President in 2020, and has received multiple Presidential Citations for his committee service. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy (B.S., General Engineering) and the Naval Postgraduate School (M.S., Computer Science).

Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2005 after a twenty-year career.

C. Donald “Don” Combs, Ph.D., FSSH, is the Founding Director of the National Center for Collaboration in Medical Modeling and Simulation (NCCMMS). In addition, he serves as the Senior Associate Vice President and Dean of the Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences EVMS School of Health Professions at Old Dominion University (ODU), Norfolk, VA, USA. Dr. Combs holds the academic rank of Professor of Health Professions at ODU.
Dr. Combs is a leader in the field of digital medicine and serves as Project Director for the Digital Patient Framework and the Digital Patient Tool Kit projects. He was the lead co-editor of the seminal book on the Digital Patient, namely The Digital Patient: Advancing Healthcare, Research and Education published by John Wiley and Sons in 2016. He has presented his research at leading educational and scientific conferences around the world.

Dr. Combs was recognized for his contributions to medical education in 2015 when he received the President’s Award for Outstanding Achievement and for his work in medical simulation through his selection as a Fellow of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (FSSH) in 2018.

Dr. Combs holds B.A with high honors and M.A. degrees from Texas Tech University and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). In his free time, Dr. Combs enjoys golf, reading, and travelling.

Taryn Cuper is a researcher specializing in modeling, simulation, and technology-driven approaches to improving healthcare, education, and human performance. As a Senior Research Associate at the Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences EVMS School of Health Professions at Old Dominion University, she contributes to interdisciplinary research that applies computational and simulation-based approaches to real-world challenges in healthcare and training.

With a background spanning cognitive science and computational modeling and simulation, Taryn is particularly interested in how simulation, medical digital twins, and other technologies can support learning, skill development, decision-making and performance in real-world healthcare environments. Her research has explored a diverse range of applications, including medical simulation, operating room safety, military health and training, stress and performance in combat-medic education, and technology-assisted rehabilitation for traumatic brain injury.

Taryn holds a BA in Cognitive Science from the University of California, Berkeley and an MS in Modeling and Simulation Engineering from Old Dominion University. This foundation shapes her approach to research, bringing together the human and technological dimensions of complex healthcare challenges. Outside work, Taryn is a metalsmith, baker, and avid hiker.

Saumya Dabhi is an AI Software Developer with the Health, Education, AI & Learning (HEAL) group at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis, & Simulation Center (VMASC) and the National Center for Collaboration in Medical Modeling & Simulation (NCCMMS) at Old Dominion University (ODU).

His work focuses on generative artificial intelligence, large language models (LLMs), natural language processing (NLP), and applications of AI in healthcare. He contributes to the development of AI-based technologies for healthcare education and patient support. His current work includes a Virtual Standardized Patient (VSP) project and an AI-enabled telehealth kiosk. His research and technical experience also include LLM fine-tuning and the development of machine learning approaches for fraud and disinformation detection. Prior to his current position, he worked as a Research Assistant at VMASC and as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Computer Science at ODU, where he supported graduate-level data science education and helped develop instructional material.

Saumya holds an M.S. in Computer Science from Old Dominion University and a B.E. in Computer Engineering from Gujarat Technological University.  In his free time, Saumya enjoys working out, cycling, and playing table tennis.

 

Dr. Arash Ghorbannia is a Research Assistant Professor of Medical Modeling and Simulation at Old Dominion University (ODU), with appointments in the Macon and Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences and the Division of Research and Economic Development. He is affiliated with the National Center for Collaboration in Medical Modeling and Simulation (NCCMMS), Health, Education, AI and Learning (HEAL) group, and the Institute for Engineering in Medicine, Health, and Human Performance (EnMed) at ODU.

His research integrates physics-informed modeling, high-performance computing, and artificial intelligence to develop patient-specific digital twins of physiological systems. His work spans cardiovascular biomechanics, computational physiology, virtual surgery, synthetic data generation, AI-based surrogate modeling, and precision medicine, with a particular focus on translating computational technologies into clinically actionable tools.

Dr. Ghorbannia is a recipient of a 2026 American Heart Association Career Development Award for his project, Digital Twin Guided Prevention of Hypertension in Coarctation of the Aorta Survivors (Grant 26CDA1588384). This three-year project combines wearable technologies, artificial intelligence, and patient-specific cardiovascular digital twins to identify early indicators of hypertension and develop precision-health strategies for children and adults following repair of coarctation of the aorta.

Dr. Ghorbannia holds a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from K. N. Toosi University of Technology, an M.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from the joint Medical College of Wisconsin–Marquette University program. He completed his postdoctoral training as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Herma Heart Institute at Children’s Wisconsin in 2022 and as a Postdoctoral Associate at Duke University in 2024. His honors include the Medical College of Wisconsin Graduate School Outstanding Dissertation Award.

Outside of research, he is a lifelong soccer player and an even more enthusiastic fisherman.

Jae Ho “Mike” Lee, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Department at ODU, leading Model-Informed Medical Engineering Laboratory (MIME Lab). He is also a member of the Institute of Engineering in Medicine, Health, and Human Performance (EnMed) in the Batten College of Engineering and Technology. Prior to joining ODU, he was a staff scientist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Mike is dedicated to the development of high-fidelity computational models and simulation frameworks to simulate, analyze, and predict complex physiological systems in health and disease. A central goal of the lab is to advance computational modeling frameworks for physiological systems, enabling model-informed decision-making in biomedical innovation, including medical devices and therapies, as well as applications in clinical practice, education, and regulatory science.

Mike holds a B.A. with Honors in Applied Mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from the Universe of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). In his free time, Mike spends most of his time with his family.

Navid Mohammad Mirzaei, Ph.D., is a Research Assistant Professor at Old Dominion University (ODU), where he is affiliated with the Virtual Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center (VMASC) and the Office of Enterprise Research and Innovation’s Center for Health, Education, and AI Learning. Before joining ODU, Dr. Mohammad Mirzaei served as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Dr. Mohammad Mirzaei is an applied mathematician whose research focuses on mathematical modeling of complex biological systems, particularly how cellular and molecular dynamics influence tissue mechanics and population-level disease incidence. He served as a Co-Investigator on the DOE/NCI-supported My Virtual Cancer project and has contributed to research on predictive cancer patient digital twins. His work has been published in leading journals, including Cancer Research, Science Advances and Royal Society Open Science, and presented at major scientific conferences and workshops. Dr. Mirzaei received the University of Delaware Excellence in Teaching Award for graduate students and has extensive experience teaching mathematics and scientific computing.

Dr. Mohammad Mirzaei holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics and an M.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Delaware, an M.S. in Pure Mathematics from Sharif University of Technology, and a B.S. in Pure Mathematics from Amirkabir University of Technology. In his free time, he enjoys playing musical instruments, reading and watching movies.

Meaghan McLeod Mozingo, M.A., is a Project Scientist with the Health, Education, AI, & Learning (HEAL) lab at Old Dominion University. She has been engaged in research at Virginia Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation Center VMASC since 2020, first as a Graduate Research Assistant and now as a Project Scientist. She is also a Ph.D. candidate in Instructional Design and Technology at Old Dominion University. 

Mozingo’s research interests lie at the intersection of human-centered design, accessibility, systems thinking, and emerging technologies. Her work explores how learning environments, technologies, and organizational systems can be designed for human variability. Her current research includes the development of AI user personas to understand how higher education students use and rely on generative AI and to inform the design of AI literacy interventions. Her doctoral research uses a systems approach to examine academic accommodations in higher education and identify how organizational, process, and performance factors shape the accommodation experience. 

Her previous research and design work includes AI literacy in higher education, self-regulated learning supports for learners experiencing challenges with executive functions, and the development of an accessible display aid for blind and visually impaired theatre patrons. She has also contributed to participatory modeling and human-centered research and design activities. Her work is informed by a broader background in accessible arts and theatre. Mozingo co-founded a nonprofit theatre company and has developed and facilitated accessible arts and theatre experiences. 

Mozingo holds an M.A. in Humanities with a concentration in Communication and is currently completing her Ph.D. in Instructional Design and Technology. Outside of her research, she is a multidisciplinary artist whose work includes sculpture, photography, painting, puppetry, mask making, and creative writing. 

Akshay Kolgar Nayak is a doctoral candidate (ABD) in the Department of Computer Science at Old Dominion University (ODU), Norfolk, VA, USA, where he is advised by Dr. Vikas Ashok. He currently serves as a Graduate Research Assistant with the Health, Education, AI, and Learning (HEAL) group (advised by Dr. Ginger Watson and Dr. Faryaneh Poursardar).

Akshay’s research sits at the intersection of human-centered computing, AI for accessibility, and inclusive computing education. His work examines how blind and low-vision users experience everyday digital environments, including online shopping, multimodal digital documents, user reviews, data charts, and web archives, and how computing instruction can be made accessible to blind learners using emerging AI technologies. At HEAL, he works on multimodal evaluation of provider and standardized patient encounters, analyzing verbal, para-verbal, and non-verbal cues for clinical skills assessment. His research has appeared at CHI, CSCW, ASSETS, SIGCSE, and ICMI, and earned a Best Paper Award at the 2025 ACM Web for All (W4A) conference. He was named a Dr. Hussein Abdel-Wahab Memorial Graduate Fellow in 2025 and has received the Best Research Mentor and Best Teaching Assistant awards at ODU in 2023.

Akshay holds an M.S. in Computer Science from ODU and a B.E. in Computer Science from Visvesvaraya Technological University. Outside of research, he enjoys hiking, gaming, reading, and working out.

April Adams Pace, DHSc, MLS, is Associate Library Director and Evidence-Based Medicine Discipline Director at the Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences Library at Old Dominion University (ODU) in Norfolk, Virginia. In these complementary roles, she helps shape library strategy and leads the integration of evidence-based practice across the Eastern Virginia Medical School curriculum. She holds the academic rank of Adjunct Assistant Professor and the faculty rank of Librarian IV, equivalent to the rank of professor.

Dr. Pace is a leader in evidence-based medicine and evidence synthesis. She teaches and mentors interdisciplinary research teams conducting systematic reviews, scoping reviews, meta-analyses, and other forms of evidence synthesis. She has coauthored peer-reviewed research spanning medical education, artificial intelligence, and clinical evidence synthesis.

Dr. Pace was inducted as a Master Educator in the Fine Family Academy of Educators in 2021. Her honors include the Faculty Award for Educational Innovation in Curriculum Development (2022), the President’s Team Achievement Award (2023), and the Fine Family Academy of Educators Engagement Award (2025 and 2026). She earned her Doctor of Health Sciences degree from Eastern Virginia Medical School, her Master of Library Science degree from the University of Maryland, and her B.A. with high honors in Philosophy and a minor in Science from Virginia Wesleyan University.

Dr. Faryaneh Poursardar is a Research Assistant Professor at Old Dominion University’s Health, Education, AI, and Learning (HEAL) Center, with a joint appointment in ODU’s School of Data Science. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on artificial intelligence, web and data science, and human-centered computing, with particular emphasis on developing trustworthy and adaptive AI systems for healthcare and other high-consequence decision-making environments. Her work spans large language models, retrieval-augmented generation, machine learning, multimodal AI, human–AI interaction, and intelligent decision-support systems. She leads and collaborates on federally and state-funded research involving AI-enabled community health support, and simulation-based healthcare applications.

Dr. Poursardar is particularly interested in translating advances in AI into practical technologies that improve healthcare access, decision making, and patient outcomes. Her current work includes developing intelligent health-support systems for underserved communities, AI-assisted clinical and surgical decision-support tools, and methods for evaluating how humans interact with and rely on AI recommendations. She is also actively engaged in interdisciplinary education, workforce development, and student mentoring, including leading data science and AI training initiatives for university students, faculty, and government partners such as NASA and the U.S. Navy. She has taught a broad range of undergraduate and graduate courses and has mentored students at multiple stages of their academic development, including undergraduate and graduate researchers participating in NSF REU programs, capstone projects, master’s theses, and doctoral research at ODU and other institutions.

Through her research, teaching, mentorship, and community partnerships, she works to translate advances in AI into solutions that address real-world social and healthcare needs and to build collaborative teams that connect computing, modeling and simulation, clinical expertise, and community engagement. Dr. Poursardar earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from Texas A&M University.

Ahmet Saglam, Ph.D., is a Lead Project Scientist at the Virginia Institute for Spaceflight & Autonomy (VISA) at Old Dominion University’s National Security Institute (ODU-NSI), Suffolk, VA, USA.

Dr. Saglam’s research focuses on autonomous and semi-autonomous robotic systems, teleoperation, shared control, unmanned ground and maritime vehicles, navigation, and digital twin technologies. He is a principal contributor to David’s Robot, a shared-control mobile telehealth robot developed in collaboration with ODU’s Ellmer School of Nursing and the Center for Telehealth Innovation, Education and Research (C-TIER) to support pediatric patient engagement and remote care. He also contributes to research on unmanned surface vessels, maritime autonomy, simulation, and emerging technologies for real-world operational environments. Dr. Saglam has presented his work at leading scientific and professional venues, including the IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), the Annual Modeling and Simulation Conference (ANNSIM), the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), the MATRC Telehealth Summit, and NVIDIA GTC.

Dr. Saglam holds a B.S. in Systems Engineering, an M.E. in Computational Modeling and Simulation from Old Dominion University, and a Ph.D. in Modeling and Simulation Engineering from ODU. In his free time, Dr. Saglam enjoys spending time with his family.

Mark W. Scerbo, Ph.D. is Professor of Human Factors Psychology at Old Dominion University and served as Co-Director of the National Center for Collaboration in Medical Modeling and Simulation (NCCMMS) from 2005 to 2010.

Dr. Scerbo is a Fellow of the Society for Simulation in Healthcare and the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, where he was recently named a Titan for his work in healthcare simulation. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Simulation in Healthcare from 2016 to 2025. Dr. Scerbo has over 40 years of experience researching and designing systems that improve user performance in academic, military, and industrial work environments, most of which is aimed at human interaction with healthcare simulation. He has conducted research in many specialty areas including emergency medicine, family medicine, interventional radiology, nursing, obstetrics and gynecology, surgery, as well as with standardized patients. Dr. Scerbo was honored with the Society for Simulation in Healthcare’s Researcher of the Year Award in 2024.

Dr. Scerbo received his B.A. from Rutgers University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. He was the Research Director of the AT&T Systems Evaluation Center in Somerset, NJ, prior to joining the faculty at ODU in 1990.

Jennifer L. Styron, PhD, ICAIS, is the Director of Teaching and Assessment at the Sentara Center for Healthcare Simulation and Immersive Learning at Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion University (ODU) in Norfolk, Virginia. She is also an Assistant Professor at the Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences EVMS School of Health Professions at ODU. In her leadership role, Dr. Styron oversees educational design, assessment, and evaluation initiatives across simulation-based programs and works collaboratively with faculty, educators, and clinical partners to align learning experiences with measurable educational and performance outcomes.

Dr. Styron’s expertise includes leading the Standardized Patient and Teaching Associate programs, including supporting the development and delivery of Gynecological Teaching Associate (GTA) and Male Urogenital Teaching Associate (MUTA) programs. Her work encompasses the recruitment, training, assessment, and quality assurance of individuals who teach and assess clinical and communication skills through simulation. She also contributes to broader initiatives focused on strengthening the quality, consistency, and effectiveness of simulation-based education and assessment.

Dr. Styron has extensive experience in instructional design and the integration of active learning strategies into health professions education, with particular expertise in team-based learning (TBL). Her work focuses on designing learner-centered educational experiences that promote engagement, critical thinking, collaboration, and the application of knowledge to practice. She has contributed to scholarship and best-practice guidance related to team-based learning, including its implementation in online learning environments. As an Instructure Certified AI Strategist (ICAIS), she also works at the intersection of artificial intelligence, instructional design, assessment, and healthcare simulation, with an emphasis on the responsible integration of AI into teaching and learning. Her work explores the use of emerging technologies to enhance learner assessment and feedback while preserving human expertise, critical thinking, and learner agency.

Dr. Styron is actively engaged in professional service within the healthcare simulation community. She serves as an editorial contributor to the Society for Simulation in Healthcare’s Healthcare Simulation Dictionary and as an accreditation reviewer for the Association of SP Educators (ASPE), contributing her expertise to initiatives that support shared terminology, standards, quality, and best practices across the field of healthcare simulation.

Lobat Tayebi is the Batten Endowed Professor and Director of the Institute for Engineering in Medicine, Health, & Human Performance (EnMed) in the College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University (ODU). She holds a PhD in Applied Sciences from the University of California, Davis, and a DPhil from the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, with a focus on biomedical engineering.

Her interdisciplinary research lies at the intersection of biology, engineering, and medicine, with particular emphasis on biomaterials, regenerative medicine, drug delivery, and artificial intelligence in healthcare. She has published more than 450 peer-reviewed papers in these areas, holds several patents arising from her research and innovations, and has authored several books in the fields of biomedicine and AI in medicine and dentistry.

Amelia Wallace, MMHPE is a recognized expert in simulation for Medical and Health Professions Education. Her work in simulation includes developing training methods, curricula, and assessment strategies for medical and non-medical learners as well as those simulating patients (SPs) at the Sentara Center for Simulation and Immersive Learning, Virginia Health Sciences (VHS) at Old Dominion University (ODU). Since 2007, she has presented over 100 peer-reviewed works on SP methodology in the US and internationally. She has co-authored papers about the application of SP methodology and is an author on the original publication of Association for Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE) Standards of Best Practice as well as the recent updated standards (in-press). Ms. Wallace is the creator/inventor of the Behavior-Inference-Judgment (BIJ) conceptual framework for training observation skills. This framework has been adopted for use by SP programs across the country including Oregon Health Sciences University, Johns Hopkins University, the Universities of Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisville, Iowa, and Illinois at Chicago.

 She is the current President of ASPE, which is recognized as the global association for Human Simulation. As ASPE President, she founded the ASPE/AI steering committee in November of 2025 as an initiative to engage the global community in the discussion about balancing the interaction between human simulation and AI technology.

 Her work in exploring how people perceive, infer, and make judgments was informed by her background in music, where deep listening and interpretive nuance are foundational. Balancing the subjective and objective to help individuals practice metacognition is paramount to her work as an artist and simulation educator. 

Ginger S. Watson, Ph.D., is a Professor and Director of the Health, Education, AI, and Learning (HEAL) group at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation Center (VMASC) and Technical Director at the National Center for Collaboration in Medical Modeling and Simulation (NCCMMS) at Old Dominion University. With over 35 years of research and development experience, Dr. Watson combines expertise in experimental design, instructional design and technology, and advanced technologies to optimize human cognition, learning, performance, and assessment.

Her early research focused on the unique cueing, affordances, and fidelity trade-offs of simulations, simulators, and virtual environments for human learning and assessment. Over the past decade, her research has focused on theoretical and applied machine learning to assist, assess, and adapt instruction to facilitate human cognition, learning, and performance. Her expertise includes human-in-the-loop instructional training platforms, AI-enabled healthcare simulation, instructional technology design, and adaptive learning assessment engines.

She has won numerous awards for teaching, research, and service, including a Link Foundation in Advanced Simulation and Training during her doctoral studies. She has served as PI/Co-PI on over $27M in funded projects and earned tenure at multiple institutions.

Dr. Watson earned a PhD in Instructional Design & Technology (specializing in multimedia learning, simulation, and measurement), an MS in Curriculum & Instruction, and a BS in Business Education. In her free time, she enjoys reading, cooking, traveling, hiking, cycling, and Pilates.

 

TBD

Temple West, PhD is a Senior Standardized Patient (SP) Educator and Simulation Specialist at the Sentara Center for Healthcare Simulation and Learning (SCHSIL) at the Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences EVMS School of Health Professions at Old Dominion University (ODU), Norfolk, VA, USA.

Dr. West is a leader in the field of SP Methodology and serves as the Chair of the Research Committee for the Mid Atlantic Consortium (MAC) and a member of the Grants and Research Committee for the Association of SP Educators (ASPE). She has presented research and authored journal articles on SP Methodology. Her particular interest lies in linguistics as they are applied to medicine and has a chapter in an upcoming book on The Medicalization of Dialogue published by John Benjamins.

Dr. West holds an MFA degree from Old Dominion University, an MMHPE Masters from EVMS, and a PhD from Old Dominion University. In her free time, she enjoys quiet time walking through Norfolk’s Botanical Gardens and working out to promote balance and well-being.

Megan A. Witherow, Ph.D., is a Research Assistant Professor with the Health, Education, AI, and Learning (HEAL) group at the Virginia Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation Center (VMASC) and National Center for Collaboration in Medical Modeling and Simulation (NCCMMS), Old Dominion University (ODU).

Dr. Witherow’s expertise and research interests include machine learning, computer vision, multimodal signal processing, human-machine interaction, affective computing, and statistical modeling, with applications to healthcare and medical education. She has published in high-impact journals and presented at international conferences. Her research and scholarship have been recognized through local, national, and international honors, such as the Batten College of Engineering & Technology and Engineers’ Club of Hampton Roads J. Harold Lampe Award for Overall Excellence in Engineering (2018), U.S. National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Award (2020), and runner-up for the International Neural Network Society Doctoral Dissertation Award (2024).

Dr. Witherow holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering with highest honors and a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from ODU. Outside of work, Dr. Witherow enjoys spending time with friends and family.