According to the number of simultaneously trained, simulators are subdivided into individual and group simulators.

Individual simulators are, as a rule, the specialized systems of elementary education or formation and maintenance of skills, which provide preparation of medical staff of one specialty. They can be single and many-placed. The single simulator provides preparation of one expert. Individual many-placed simulators are simulators of mass training, which have a plenty of the same type simulators and are applied to simultaneous preparation of several trainees of one specialty.

Group simulators are, as a rule, complex simulators, which provide simultaneous and joint preparation of doctors of different specialties.

According to a degree of adaptation of the training process to specific features of a trainee simulators are divided on adaptive and nonadaptive.

Adaptive simulators provide automatic change of algorithm of teaching, its self-adaptation to successes of the trainee and to his specific features according to the rate and quality of training tasks fulfillment. Accumulating data about the preparation level of a trainee, the simulator carries out the optimization of the process control of the operator training, selects such method and such rate of submission of educational problems at which better quality of their fulfillment is provided. Adaptive simulators can be special-purpose and multi-purpose.

Nonadaptive simulators provide automatic training of medical staff on the set algorithm of functioning without self-adaptation to specific features and a preparation level of trainees, i.e. the simulator does not provide automatic control of the operator preparation process.

Character of formed skills is determined by the psychological structure of the activity corresponding to problems, solved by the operator on a simulator.

As the simulator is a mean of professional teaching of the person-operator, providing formation of skills and abilities, requests to a designed simulator should be determined first of all by psychology, pedagogics and ergonomics.

One of the main ergonometric requirements to medical simulators is the similarity of information model to the real object - to the person.

Concept about models and their similarity are fundamental in epistemology. The basic property of model consists in ability to display adequately the qualities of any object or process. The model can display not everything but only separate properties of an object and to be similar to it on any certain qualities and with the final accuracy.

There is a following classification of models: 1. Mathematical models; 2. Models on basis of analogy; 3. Physical models.

Mathematical modelling is based on the mathematical description of processes and phenomena in which various kinds of dependences can be used.