While the SIMPL Collaborative did not yet exist, the work of the founding group began in 2011 at Northwestern University as part of a local research project lead by Dr. Debra DaRosa.  As part of that project an earlier version of the SIMPL OR app (called PASS) was used to provide additional feedback to trainees and to investigate the progression of autonomy in the operating room.  After publishing that work several other institutions approached the group about collaborating on larger projects.  It became clear that there was room for a more coordinated collaborative effort in surgical education quality improvement. In response, The Society for Improving Medical Professional Learning, or SIMPL- Then known as the Procedural Learning and Safety Collaborative, or PLSC- was founded in 2014 with the visionary support of Massachusetts General Hospital, Northwestern University, and Indiana University. Since then the SIMPL Collaborative continues to grow and now covers thousands of trainees from over 100 programs in 13 specialties. 

Using SIMPL OR to measure trainee operative preparedness was our first educational quality improvement effort- an effort that continues today. Since then we have been working to make improvements around the medical eduaction system and look forward to contributions from new programs, researchers, trainees, and faculty who are passionate about improving medical education.

The members of SIMPL Collaboartive share a common vision, which is to create and support a continously improving medical education system. This organization is now the pre-eminent group through which innovation and research can be systematically applied to medical education quality improvement.