Augmented Reality And Virtual Reality
Augmented and virtual reality (AR and VR) are most beneficial when implemented at the early stages of education for medical students, especially those training for a specific specialty and experienced surgeons. Generally, humans learn faster from visual applications as visualisation play an important aspect of our lives. As children the most important way for us to learn is from pictures. Furthermore, interaction with our surroundings allow us to gain deeper understanding of the world, and provide us with the much-needed experience.
Medical students could be provided with and taught novel and complicated surgical procedures, or learn about anatomy through AR without ever needing to interact or involve real patients at an early stage or without ever needing to perform an autopsy on a real corpse. These students will of course be interacting with real patients in their future careers, but the goal would be to initiate the training at an earlier stage, which could also lower the cost of training at a later stage.
Of course, interaction with real patients should be encouraged in medicine but these are not always necessary and available when an individual is undergoing a certain training program. The use of other physical and digital cues such as haptic feedback and photorealistic images and videos can provide a real simulation whereby learning can flourish and the consequences and cost of training are not drastic. In a recent study, conducted on two groups of surgical trainees, at the end of the training, a significant improvement in surgical dissection was observed for those who trained with VR.
In terms of the medical profession, future clinicians will need to acquire highly-specialised technical skills to fulfill the need for an ever-evolving healthcare sector. Early in medical school, various concepts are already taught to students without them ever experiencing these concepts in real life. So game-like technologies such as VR and AR could enhance and enrich the learning experience, and upgrade the training capacity, of future medical and health-related disciplines.
