SimShockPad vs PathoPlay
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
SimShockPad
This interactive simulator trains users to manage critical hemodynamic situations like heart failure, bleeding, and septic shock. Make rapid, accurate decisions under pressure using a variety of therapies and advanced treatments to keep patients alive.
- Three pathological modes (heart failure, bleeding, sepsis)
- Seven combinable therapies with dose-dependent effects
- Advanced treatments for specific conditions
- Multiparameter real-time monitoring
- Adjustable difficulty and game speed
- Multilingual interface
- Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and macOS
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SimShock is a hemodynamic simulation game. It is not a teaching or instructional tool, nor is it a clinical simulator. Think of it as a home flight simulator: true to the spirit, carefully made, but still a game. One critically ill patient, vital signs changing in real time, and very little room for error. The patient may arrive with heart failure, massive hemorrhage, septic shock or an arrhythmia. Each condition behaves differently, and what saves one patient can sink another. NEW HEMODYNAMIC ENGINE A new model links heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output and vascular resistance to filling pressures. The baroreflex has two arms and can become exhausted, each patient has an individual sensitivity to each drug, and infusions have a therapeutic window: inside it they do their job; outside it, they do something else. No drug has a hard ceiling — if you overdo it, you will see the consequences. Real physiology is far more complicated. Many rules have been deliberately simplified to make the game playable. THE THREE SCREENS · Monitor — real-time ECG and pulse waveform, with systolic pressure, heart rate and venous pressure shown in traffic-light colors. Ventricular and supraventricular arrhythmias may develop spontaneously during a case. · Hemodynamics — cardiac output, cardiac index, vascular resistance, capillary and pulmonary pressures, stroke volume, blood volume and ventricular work, displayed as either values or a profile. · Trends — 1-, 5- and 10-minute evolution with an event log: this is where you can see exactly where the game went wrong. ACTION BUTTONS · Norepinephrine — at high doses, increased resistance chokes the ventricle: capillary pressure rises and cardiac output falls. · Dobutamine — increases cardiac output without increasing blood pressure. At high doses: tachycardia and hypotension. · Dopamine — above 20 µg/kg/min it irritates the ventricle: ectopic beats after ten seconds, ventricular tachycardia after twenty-five. · Nitroglycerin — unloads the lungs quickly, and can take the blood pressure down with it if the patient has little to spare. · Furosemide — makes a difference in the fluid-overloaded patient, not in the dry one, no matter how high you turn it up. · Saline and transfusion — finite bags: every milliliter counts. · Antibiotics — three regimens and one source of infection. Only the regimen that covers it works, and the infection itself must be controlled (Infection Control button). · Antiarrhythmics — adenosine, diltiazem, esmolol, propranolol, procainamide and amiodarone. · Defibrillator, non-invasive ventilation and transfer to intensive care. · Transfusion — transfusing alone is not enough: the bleeding must also be controlled (Bleeding Control button). THE CONTROLS · Notes — the assistant tells you what the patient still needs to become stable. · The doctor — tap to switch between a male and female doctor. If things go wrong, the expression changes. · Events — a log of what you did and when. · Pause — freezes time. Speed makes it run faster or slower. · Difficulty — changes how the patient evolves, not the reference ranges. · Arrhythmias — from off to a randomized 30% probability, or automatic according to difficulty. · Patient — variable or standard. Switch it off if you want reproducible games. · Random — hides the condition name and switches off the traffic lights: you have to read the numbers. · Exam — ten consecutive cases with scoring. · Cockpit — switches between the classic interface and the command-station view without losing the current game. · Language, Instructions and volume from 0 to 100 next to the clock, with a separate mute control. NOTICE SimShock is a game that represents pathophysiological situations in a simplified way. It is not an educational tool or a clinical guide, and it does not provide medical advice or recommendations. Always consult healthcare professionals.
PathoPlay
Learn disease and drug mechanisms through interactive puzzles. Connect molecular cascades, identify drug targets, and understand how disruptions lead to illness across 10 body systems. Offers daily challenges and offline access.
- Mechanism-based learning
- Interactive puzzles
- Disease and drug tracing
- Daily challenges
- Offline access
- 10 body systems covered
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PathoPlay teaches pathophysiology and pharmacology by mechanism, not memorization. Trace how diseases start, how drugs treat them, and how the same molecular cascades recur across organ systems. Can you connect the chain? Portal hypertension → splanchnic capillary pressure → fluid transudation → ascites. Every link matters. Miss one, and the pathway breaks. Now treat it. Five drugs in your cart. Only one hits the right molecular target. Choose wrong, the cascade continues. Now sabotage it. A healthy cascade. Five insults: pathogens, toxins, autoantibodies, stressors. Only one disrupts the pathway at the right node. Drop it correctly, and watch the disease unfold step by step. FIVE MODES Chain — Drag and connect steps from trigger to clinical outcome. Reverse — Start with a clinical finding and trace backward to the root cause. How attendings think. Versus — Two similar diseases side by side. Fill in the gaps that distinguish them. Treat — Drag the correct drug onto the right molecular target to block the cascade. Pharmacology by mechanism. Sabotage — Drop the right pathogen, toxin, or autoantibody onto the node it disrupts. Watch the cascade fail in real time. PLUS Mechanisms — Study horizontally instead of by body system. 28 immunopathology, toxin, and hemodynamic clusters span every mode. Daily Challenge — One new chain every day. Build your streak in under 3 minutes. 650 PUZZLES ACROSS 10 BODY SYSTEMS Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Renal, GI & Hepatology, Neurology, Endocrine, Infectious Disease, Hematology, Reproductive, Rheumatology — pathophysiology, pharmacology, and mechanism-disruption in every system. Sabotage highlights: H. pylori, HBV cccDNA, C. difficile, doxorubicin cardiotoxicity, anti-PLA2R membranous, falciparum malaria, prion disease, MS, Hashimoto, Graves, TTP, HIT, APS, HPV cervical cancer, drug-induced lupus, statin myopathy. WHO IT'S FOR Medical students preparing for USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK. Nursing students mastering mechanisms for NCLEX. PA, NP, and pharmacy students building clinical reasoning foundations. Anyone who wants to understand why diseases happen and how drugs work. WHY IT WORKS Most study tools ask you to recall facts. PathoPlay asks you to think with mechanism as the unit of reasoning. Five different ways to engage the same molecular reality builds understanding that survives exam pressure and translates to clinical practice. Every puzzle ends with a clinical pearl referenced to standard medical textbooks. From the makers of MedDiagnosis (clinical case simulator) and Kinetics (USMLE biochemistry). ACCESS 200 chains free across all 10 body systems One-time purchase unlocks all four premium modes, the Mechanisms browse, and all future content, yours forever No subscriptions, no ads, fully offline Evidence-based content referenced to Robbins & Cotran, Harrison's, Guyton & Hall, Goodman & Gilman's, Pathoma, Nat Rev Dis Primers, NEJM, and Lancet. Support: contact@diagnosticstudios.com Educational use only. Not for clinical decision-making. USMLE® is a trademark of NBME/FSMB. No affiliation or endorsement.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: PathoPlay at 5.0 against SimShockPad's 1.0. PathoPlay also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.6). SimShockPad's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. PathoPlay sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. SimShockPad asks for nothing beyond the download.
PathoPlay holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 1.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.
SimShockPad ships an update weekly, PathoPlay every 11 days. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | SimShockPad | PathoPlay |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 0.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 1 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 11 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 136 MB | 58 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Pablo Kessler Saiz | Helena Kaso |
In-app purchases
SimShockPad
No in-app purchases
PathoPlay
- PathoPlay Premium$12.99









