The approach in medical education today had changed from the traditional approach back in the 20th century. With Simulation en Santé or health simulations, more attention is focused on virtual patients, clinical experience, and other simulations, and less emphasis on seminars and lectures. Here we discuss the potentials of VR technology and identifies the dangers and promises of using VR in medical education.
Medical Training with Virtual Reality
Computer-generated simulations made by virtual reality technology are developed to mirror actual training scenarios that have been used by medical students for their training in hospital settings. There are two types of simulation categories of training situations, virtual reality and augmented reality.
Augmented Reality
Images and sensory feedback is used by augmented reality to real-world models. Augmented reality uses image overlays on models to simulate surface conditions or internal organs.
Virtual Reality
Purely virtual images and sensory inputs are used by virtual reality technology to create an entirely artificial and immersive reality for the user to interact and see. As a part of regular coursework training, VR technology is used by medical schools for their extensive use in their curriculum. Medicine schools use VR platforms to improve with surgical practice. Virtual reality goggles are used by students to view multiple brain scan images of human brains and to interact with it as well. By using three-dimensional models of actual brains, virtual reality becomes a prelude to studying and working with actual brain structures. Virtual dissection provides an effective training platform for students before taking on real brains in hospital settings.
VR training for surgeries is valuable for resident doctors and students that have deficiencies in performing operations independently. VR gives a close approximation of hands-on surgical training to students before performing actual surgeries.
Future Trends
Emergency training is expected to be expanded with the use of VR in simulation pieces of training. One example is CPR training. Traditional CPR training is limited to using dummies, but with VR, realistic training scenarios can be made to place students in any possible emergencies.
VR is expected to give substantial training is actively planning surgeries in advance and in diagnosing conditions that require surgery. VR will help experienced practicing surgeons in expanding their planning capabilities as well as helping to train resident doctors and students in creating and assessing surgical plans.
VR is also valuable in treating and assessing neurological conditions and diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease in practice and in training to the extent that using VR simulates a no-risk setting in a real-life academic setting.
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