DocSim is a not-for-profit organisation based in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, established in 2023 by Dr Bryan Carson. While studying in Plovdiv, Dr Carson successfully ran a charity that provided important practical skills to medical students and the Bulgarian community at large, but the COVID-19 pandemic unfortunately prevented this from continuing.
 

DocSim was established a few years later to begin filling in the blanks and giving back to Bulgaria for the fantastic education and career opportunities it provided for him. The concept was pretty simple: to use the learning curve experienced by Dr Carson and enable medical students to have a smoother transition into their medical careers. He recognised that although Bulgaria was a fantastic place to ‘learn medicine’, it was not a great place to learn how to be a Doctor. The Bulgarian system teaches new doctors those skills in their speciality training, which IMGs often don’t stick around for.
 

Now, while there are plenty of opportunities for students to skill up towards their courses in a mad panic - we wanted to provide a more natural, modular approach to doctoring in the NHS. Anyone can attend a one-day, all-intensive course, get a certificate for specific skills and then not use them for eight months until they’re thrown into the job.
 

We want to change how IMGs think and practice while studying, organising their medical knowledge into functional blocks to retain the skills and knowledge for clinical practice appropriately. The emphasis of our courses is that they can be done more casually over a more significant period of time to build skills in a manner in which they are maintained. 
 

As such, all of our theoretical training is free to anyone who wishes to increase their knowledge and skills. You can repeat training as often as possible to maintain your theoretical skills. We charge a small fee for coaching classes and practical skills, which covers the use of the venue, upkeep, buying of new equipment, and the payment for coaches' time.