UNAB to Be Part of the Largest Health Training Center in Chile and Latin America

Expected to become operational in 2027, CECA will span more than 18,000 square meters and will be used exclusively by students from UNAB, UDLA, and AIEP. It will feature over 100 different methodologies and technologies designed to support clinical and professional learning.

This new Advanced Clinical Education Center (CECA) is an immersive clinical training facility that Universidad Andrés Bello will make available to its health sciences students beginning in 2027. The project is the first of its kind in Chile and features some of the most advanced technologies in immersive and clinical simulation, enabling an accurate replication of real healthcare environments. Its objective is to strengthen students’ practical skills and more effectively prepare them for real-world practice.

CECA is an ambitious and forward-thinking initiative that enriches UNAB’s health education model through the integration of technology and a wide array of clinical scenarios.

“Our educational model for health sciences already includes clinical simulation and real-world clinical practice. CECA now adds an immersive training dimension,” explains UNAB President Julio Castro. “This center enhances our academic offering by providing students with a unique space built to the highest international standards. It serves as a safe, powerful complement—not a replacement—for our existing simulated hospitals, reinforcing students’ learning while building their skills and confidence.”

Construction on CECA began in 2024. The facility is located in Maipú, adjacent to the recently inaugurated Clínica Indisa, one of UNAB’s most important clinical training sites. The center will serve students from three institutions affiliated with Fundación Educación y Cultura: UNAB, UDLA, and AIEP.

A total of 21 health-related academic programs across these institutions will use the center, which will host more than 400 training sessions per day.

“CECA is part of a long-term strategy for clinical education that represents a qualitative leap forward in health training in Chile,” says CECA Clinical Director Sergio Becerra. “Beyond its infrastructure, it stands out for integrating advanced simulation, aligned curricula, and a structured environment that supports rigorous, progressive, and safe skills development.”

The center provides a secure and structured clinical experience, organized into academic routines that allow for repetition, consolidation, and deepened learning—strengthening students’ preparation and confidence for real-world healthcare settings.

Advanced Technologies

CECA is the largest and most innovative immersive training center in Chile and Latin America—not only because of its size (18,000 square meters serving students from more than 20 academic programs across three institutions), but also for the educational tools and methodologies it will offer. Its defining feature is its use of advanced technologies for immersive and clinical simulation training.

The technologies and instructional methods selected for CECA were chosen through a rigorous review conducted by international experts in clinical education and grounded in the latest evidence in health education. The team also studied the design and implementation of top clinical simulation centers around the world, including:

• CASE at Acibadem University (Istanbul)
• IEXCEL at the University of Nebraska Medical Center
• The Interprofessional Immersive Simulation Center at the University of Toledo (USA)
• The Simulated Hospital at Universidad Europea de Madrid
• The Women’s Guild Simulation Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles, USA)

As a result, CECA will include high-fidelity simulators, virtual patients, standardized patients, augmented reality, virtual and mixed reality, task trainers, an immersive ambulance for emergency and prehospital training, high-definition interactive displays, 3D printing capabilities, and AI-enabled tools, among others.

“The goal is for students to experience a truly realistic clinical environment from the moment they step into CECA,” says UNAB Dean Nicolás Bronfman. “From entry, they are immersed in a training experience that faithfully mirrors real-world clinical practice, down to the smallest detail.”

The center’s technological infrastructure and educational approach make it the perfect complement to UNAB’s existing simulated hospitals—and a powerful tool to strengthen students’ skills, knowledge, and confidence for their clinical rotations. Faculty engagement began in 2024, with teams aligning methodologies, receiving training, and preparing to maximize the center’s full potential.

Training Spaces

CECA will include:

• 7 hospital-based settings: immersive surgery suite, intensive care unit, emergency department, prehospital care area, complete surgical wing, hospital pharmacy, and a fully immersive health room with sound, projection, and atmospheric effects
• 8 outpatient settings: simulated home, primary care center, community pharmacy, physical medicine and rehabilitation center, infusion and hemotherapy center, specialty and virtual patient center, public health emergency and disaster response area, and an imaging center
• 7 simulation zones: inpatient rooms, specialized care units, consultation rooms, physical therapy labs, semiology labs, clinical procedure rooms, and a digital health lab
• 6 complementary educational areas: auditorium, clinical case discussion rooms, classrooms, an innovation and knowledge generation hub, informal learning spaces, and a wellness and self-care center