When a simulation vendor shuts down, the program keeps the obligation

A simulation product becomes a dependency when a program relies on it to teach, assess, or keep records. Content, scoring, and cost per learner deserve scrutiny, but so does a less comfortable question: what will the program do if the product goes away?

Kognito is worth studying because its training had published research behind it, including a randomized trial and a federal registry review. That evidence didn't keep the product on sale.

What happened to Kognito

Kognito built digital role play simulations for conversations about mental health and other topics. Its notice to customers says it stopped all selling and marketing on August 2, 2023. The brand would close, with its resource and simulation library winding down as existing customer agreements ended. The company said it would continue serving active accounts through those agreements.

The notice doesn't give a single date when every customer's access would end. It ties that date to each agreement. Kognito had announced its move into Ascend Learning's Clinical Healthcare group in October 2017, so the decision came after it had joined a larger education company.

That history doesn't establish that a residency program lost assessment records. It does give anyone buying simulation a reason to ask how they'll keep teaching and preserve records if a product closes.

A published trial isn't a continuity guarantee

Kognito At-Risk for College Students received a review from SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices in May 2012. The legacy listing describes a quasi-experimental study across 10 colleges and universities. Compared with a no-treatment control group, students reported greater gains in preparedness to recognize psychological distress, approach a student, and make a referral.

In 2019, Coleman and colleagues published a randomized controlled trial and a naturalistic evaluation of the training in Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior.

Those studies remain part of the research record. SAMHSA has since discontinued NREPP, and the legacy listing warns that its descriptions are no longer updated. Neither a registry review nor a trial tells a buyer how long a product will remain available or what happens to its records when it closes.

I wouldn't dismiss a product because its future is uncertain. Every purchase involves that uncertainty. I'd want the program to know how it can leave before it starts depending on the product.

The obligations that don't wind down

The ACGME Common Program Requirements for Residency, effective July 1, 2026, put evaluation duties on programs and their directors:

• Document evaluations when assignments end (5.1.a).
• Base objective performance evaluations on the Competencies and specialty-specific Milestones (5.1.b), and make evaluations available for residents to review (5.1.g).
• Have the Clinical Competency Committee review all resident evaluations at least semiannually (5.3.c).
• Document verification of education within 30 days of a resident's completion or departure (2.6.j), and provide verification within 30 days when the resident requests it (2.6.k).

These requirements don't make every practice transcript a permanent educational record. A program needs to decide what belongs in its assessment record and preserve access according to institutional policy. When faculty use simulation evidence in resident evaluation, the program needs a way to retrieve what it relies on after a contract ends.

There is a records service for a different kind of closure. The Federation of State Medical Boards stores records from participating closed GME programs under agreements with those programs. That service isn't a promise to retrieve data from a software vendor. A program should establish its own arrangements for access and retention before relying on a vendor's system.

What to ask before a product holds your assessment record

These are the five questions I'd take into a purchase or renewal conversation.

What do we get on the last day, and in what format?

A PDF report and the scores and transcripts behind it support different uses. Ask which records the contract covers, how you'll receive them, and whether you can read a sample export without the vendor's software. Agree on what you need to retain under your institution's policies, including who can access it.

What happens to learner data if the company is acquired?

Kognito's 2017 announcement and its 2023 notice are a reason to ask this even when the seller belongs to a larger company. Ask who controls the data after a sale, whether permitted uses can change, and what rights the institution has to retrieve or delete it.

Does the wind down end on our date or theirs?

Kognito tied its wind down to existing agreements. Ask your vendor what notice you'll receive and how long you can access and export records after a termination notice. Check whether those terms leave enough time to move the records and change the curriculum.

Can we reconstruct a resident's assessment record without logging into the vendor?

Try it with a sample before signing. Can faculty identify the resident, encounter date, scoring criteria, and evidence they used? Decide which of those records the institution needs to keep and who will check that the transfer is complete.

Is any of this written down?

Ask for export commitments, notice periods, and handover responsibilities in the contract. Ask whether data escrow is appropriate and, if proposed, what it would contain and when the institution could access it. A reassurance in a sales call won't tell the next program coordinator where to find a resident's record.

The same questions apply to us

We're a young company, and a program director should ask ClinicalSim all five questions. Our answers about export, retention, and handover belong in the agreement with that institution.

With ClinicalSim, participants practice spoken conversations with AI patients and receive feedback scored against a named rubric, with transcript evidence they and faculty can inspect. The feedback shows what the participant did well and what to practice next. Scores are formative evidence for faculty review and don't replace human judgment.

Programs can read our complete example encounters, including recordings, transcripts, and reports, before deciding whether the output is useful. Our methodology explains the scoring and its limits, and our research page describes opportunities to study communication training. Participants can practice between scheduled standardized patient encounters while programs keep live observation and coaching in their curricula.

When you evaluate a product, ask the vendor to show you both an encounter and the records you'd receive if you left. Have the person responsible for resident records check that second part. I'd want ClinicalSim held to that standard too.