REFLECTIONS Patients with chronic conditions: simulate to educate? Thomas Lefe `vre 1 • Re ´mi Gagnayre 2 • Maxime Gignon 3 Received: 20 March 2016 / Accepted: 2 March 2017 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2017 Abstract Simulation in healthcare in an way to train professionals but it is not yet use commonly to train patient or their caregivers. Recently, it has been suggested to extend simulations to patients with chronic conditions. Simulations could help patients and caregivers to acquire psychosocial and self-management skills. This approach proved to be effective for the training of healthcare professionals, but its transferability to patients needs to be evaluated. Already, several questions arise. However, by considering simulations as pretexts for debriefing, they enable patients and professionals to assess a concrete situation, implying voluntary and reflexive learning processes. Thus, video recording should be assessed for its role in patient metacognition, defined as knowing about knowing. A taxonomy for simulations dedicated to patients, like that already developed for healthcare professionals, should be considered. Although practical constraints must be identified and addressed, they should not be the primary issue guiding research. The transferability of simulation as an educational technique from professionals to patients and caregivers should be investigated essentially in order to provide a significant benefit to patients. Keywords Chronic disease Á Patient education Á Patient involvement Á Simulation Chronic diseases are growing all around the world. Their management is a challenge for our healthcare systems. Despite the increasing numbers of patients with two or more chronic conditions, the delivery of care is usually built around single diseases (Fortin et al. & Maxime Gignon gignon.maxime@chu-amiens.fr Re ´mi Gagnayre remi.gagnayre@univ-paris13.fr 1 Department of Forensic Medicine, Ho ˆpital Jean-Verdier (AP-HP), 93140 Bondy, France 2 Health Education and Practices Laboratory–LEPS (EA 3412), Universite ´ Paris13-Sorbonne Paris Cite ´, 74, rue Marcel Cachin, 93017 Bobigny, France 3 Health Simulation Center SimUSante ´ Ò, Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, France 123 Adv in Health Sci Educ DOI 10.1007/s10459-017-9768-z