4 examples of VR training in Healthcare
Healthcare training depends on many factors, such as space, crowding and practice materials. Teaching knowledge and keeping it up to date is a complex task because you have to train with fragile dolls or even people. Virtual reality offers a solution for these obstacles, in a virtual environment where endless practice can take place. In this article we mention 4 examples of VR training in healthcare.
Uconn Health | Surgeon Training
Uconn trains surgeons on disposable cadavers. An expensive and costly method, especially a profession where students have to practice a lot. The company found in virtual reality a method to save costs and speed up the learning process.
On an Oculus Quest headset, students can choose from 6 levels of difficulty. The training has lifelike images and scenarios, to prepare the students for the different scenarios they will encounter in practice. This way of training allows the students to practice in a goal-oriented way.
The material can be complicated, which is why the training includes a double-loop system that allows for feedback and improvement. The teacher can also connect so that they can watch and give tips.
This way of training ensures few risks. Research has shown that this way of learning is 570% more efficient than the traditional way of learning. The students find out in this way what areas need improvement before they can tackle cases in an efficient and reproducible manner.
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LA Hospital | Trauma VR-training
Los Angeles Children’s Hospital is a children’s hospital that trains with expensive and fragile mannequins. The hospital spends $430,000 a year in this way. The total duration of a training session is 2 hours, while the employee only trains for 1 hour. This had to be done more efficiently and cost-effectively, and so this virtual reality training was born.
During the training, the students can use the intelligent AiSolve to follow the virtual reality training in which virtual patients, staff and the programme itself react to their decisions in real time. Based on actual case studies conducted by the doctors at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the virtual scenarios are different each time.
Training sessions can now be started in a short period of time and no clean-up is necessary. The realistic scenarios with different outcomes and events keep the students in a similar workload. The Oculus Rift headset together with touch controllers are used for training.
The user-friendly controllers now allow the students to follow the same training faster, cheaper and easier. The board of the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles says that it is also financially a good choice to give the trainings via virtual reality.
Expertiseteam Corona Fryslan | Corona VR Training
Expertise Team Corona Friesland, Health Care Office Friesland and GGD Fryslân cooperated with the Expertise Team Corona Fryslan in the development of a Covid-19 VR training. Goal was to better prepare employees for the upcoming second Corona wave.
In the two-day training care professionals learn about hygiene measures, shielding from the outside world and treatment methods. The training addresses questions such as: how do I recognise a lung infection and what should I do next, how do I protect myself and my colleagues, and what about regulations and guidelines?
In interactive 360 videos, they have to recognise symptoms and choose the right measures on the basis of multiple-choice questions. Finally, the virtual reality training also deals with dealing with patients’ families.
Participants cite the realism and the need to ‘perform under pressure’ as the main benefits of the training. Meanwhile, some 120 healthcare employees have followed the training and there is interest from other regions of the country.
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Camphia hospital, MMC & Marne guesthouse | Virtual Reality Training
The Amphia Hospital, the Máxima Medisch Centrum and the Spaarne Gasthuis wanted to use virtual reality for the training of healthcare employees. They developed “virtual humans”, avatars which enter into a dialogue with the employee during the training.
The training is used in so-called “high-risk domains” such as obstetrics, surgery and oncology. The interaction between colleagues, patients and the different situations that can occur are trained with virtual reality simulations. This interaction is mimicked by avatars called “VIBE“.
VIBE will replace the instructors and enter into a conversation with the employee during the training. The realistic avatars enter into a conversation with the employee about robotics, for example. The avatars can learn independently, both in terms of speech and mimicry. The hospitals see these avatars as the “missing-link” in the current training programmes.
Ultimately, the level of knowledge among the staff is optimised and the training courses are now more easily available because an entire department does not have to be free for them. The training will be rolled out to other departments after the positive response from employees.
