Education in immersive virtual reality is a dream of educators for a long time. The airline industry built multi-million simulations which actually is modeling physics and electronics to the letter. They succeeded in doing so as aircrafts are manufactured and so does the simulator cabin. Physics and electronics are predictable with formulas. The take home message is "Almost perfect simulator" which can provide trainee with very realistic experience.
Looking at the safety of airline industry, it is day and night and simulation played a crucial role in the leap forward. I had the privilege to teach using high fidelity anesthesia simulator (METI HPS) in 2000. It is a very powerful educational tool, no doubt. Now, as high fidelity as it is, it is not close to the full physiologic and pathologic variations we see in a real human patient. The point is, you end up modifying modeled response to what you think is more of ones experience. So, you are teaching your own bias. While we do teach our own biases by other methods of teaching, you can print your bias much more effectively in the virtual world and it won't be easy to correct it by other means.
Measuring performance and learning the simulation lab is near to impossible due the inability to account for learning just by holding attention of learners during the task. There are no true controls. Then there is the question retention, How long they will hold to what they learnt in the Sim lab.
Personally, I believe it is a very valuable tool. It is however very labor and resource intensive and if not done well, it is more harmful than good. The initial investment pales in contrast to the resources needed to maintain and produce such labs.
Saied N.: Virtual reality and medicine--from the cockpit to the operating room: are we there yet? Mo Med. 2005 Sep-Oct;102(5):450-5.
Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care, Human Patient Simulator Laboratory, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, USA.
Abstract:
Teaching medicine to medical students, physicians in training and nurses is a challenging task that has remained unchanged for decades. The airline industry has achieved a great deal of safety and quality in a technically challenging environment. Many believe that their outstanding achievement is due to team training and crew resource management using simulators and dedicated training programs. Many experts in the medical profession believe that adopting the same strategies in teaching medical students and trainees could achieve significant reductions in medical errors and improve the quality of patient care. This article explores the role of teaching medicine using virtual reality in a multitude of medical specialties and outlines the use of simulation training at Saint Louis University.
PMID: 16259396
