UC Health Celebrates Grand Opening of DARRIO Simulation Center

UC Health and the U.S. Air Force held a grand opening ceremony on Wednesday, March 11, to celebrate the DARRIO Simulation Center, a newly expanded facility that houses the Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills (C-STARS). 

The 30,000 SF facility enables training to prepare Air Force medical teams for the real-world situations they will face in combat and other scenarios. The facility expansion allows 300 Critical Care Air Transport (CCAT) teams to be trained there, up from the current total of 100. 

BHDP, in partnership with Danis Construction, developed the schematic plans and final designs for the new, state-of-the-art facility. Heather Wehby was the project manager and architect. The BHDP team also worked with APC Design Studio and and Davies Engineering (formerly ThermalTech Engineering) to transform the former operating room, originally constructed in the 1960s. 

“We knew we needed strong communication between the designers, engineers, and construction team because of the existing conditions,” said Wehby. “We were trying to reuse as much of the existing construction as possible while creating an optimal environment to service this important program. The collaboration with UC Health and USAF made this possible, and I am very grateful for the opportunity.” 

Developed in partnership with the 711th Human Performance Wing of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the DARRIO Simulation Center is the only center of its kind in the world. The facility includes a fully equipped command center, a dedicated research space, and an immersive virtual reality facility. Other capabilities include:

• Simulation technology
• Virtual and augmented reality environments
• Data-informed performance tools for real-time clinical scenarios

For this project, the BHDP Experiential Graphic Design (EGD) team transformed an AI-generated concept image created for client proposals into a high-resolution, print-ready installation. The final composite is built from roughly 30 Photoshop layers and features a C-17 Globemaster with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base tail markings, service members, and medical teams boarding with wounded at dusk. The image is printed on Inpro Aspex wall protection and finished with 3/8" laser-cut acrylic UC Health and DARRIO Simulation Center logos mounted over the image.

The DARRIO Simulation Center will serve as a national hub for operationally relevant, data-driven research that accelerates innovation across the en route care spectrum. UC Health has hosted the C-STARS program since 2002. Nearly 5,000 Air Force medical professionals have been trained through the partnership over two decades. Read more from UC Health and the Cincinnati Business Courier.