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Retaining knowledge in medical education is changing. Simulation is increasingly becoming a cornerstone of the health industry. With increasing pressure on budgets and standardization, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are emerging as new methods of delivering simulation.
VR is the virtual construction of an artificial world such as – medical imaging VR can enable better planning to support patient safety by reducing their exposure to radiation dose.
AR involves overlaying computer-generated images onto images of the real world. In other words, it is computer-generated imagery that is visible through the use of virtual visualization where the images are overlaid onto real-life surfaces in the present environment.
The published literature suggests a positive educational impact of using AR/VR in the health industry.
These advantages are further highlighted by the current COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused an even greater shift towards online learning, due to restricted face-to-face access.
The pace of change in medical practice has been relentless. The interprofessional nature of care and the complexity of healthcare systems are vastly different today than they were 20 years ago.
It is no longer a question of whether an individual can retain or access facts, but how they use them, evaluate them and apply them to patient care.
Hence, there is a move to replace rote learning (a process of memorizing information based on repetition) with more clinically relevant and practical teaching. Hence, immersive technologies such as AR/VR have gained momentum as a method of delivering experiential learning.
In the future, VR and AR will become an integral part of healthcare training. The technological developments in AR and VR will allow shared simulated clinical experiences. This will facilitate quality interprofessional education at scale and transform how we deliver education to the clinicians of the future.
Interactive AR and VR involve a totally immersive, dynamic, adaptive, interactive world.
In the context of medical training, AR and VR can include – virtual wards, interactive patients, colleagues and relatives, with interaction similar to real-time interactions.
The learner can be in the virtual world, moving and interacting with the virtual environment and patient as they would in real life.
Once scenarios are completed, learners can receive virtual debriefing by the educators facilitating conversations through web-based videoconferencing platforms and view automatically-generated feedback on their performance. This allows learners to examine their performance in more detail and provides the opportunity for blended learning. It also facilitates peer learning as learners can share feedback with their colleagues and mentors as a basis for discussing specific learning points.
The standardization and scoring possible with VR will make it commonplace in continuing medical education and revalidation and become a benchmark to ensure clinical competency and patient safety across healthcare systems.
Impelsys has a state-of-the-art Innovation lab that explores emerging technologies and provides the best learning experience by using the latest technologies such as AR/VR. With vast experience in enabling healthcare professionals to improve patient care using cost-effective digital training programs, Impelsys is now able to provide more immersive and fully interactive healthcare training using AR/VR technologies.