The medical community is using the virtual classroom to fight a real virus. (Source: Fundamental VR)

Programs Train Docs with Virtual Surgery, Remote AR Classrooms

In this very divided time in our society, even a pandemic has not kept some groups from gathering in risky places, like bars. Some people refuse to believe in the risk that COVID-19 poses.

However, the medical community understands the risk of the virus and is taking steps to combat it in its recent approach to teaching surgery. Because COVID-19 has forced them to rethink in-person training procedures, the medical education platform FundamentalVR is pioneering a new way for students to get that hands-on learning through VR, where they’re able to fail without real-world consequences.

Bobby Carlton, writing in vrscouts.com, shows just how surgery instruction has gone virtual.

Their Fundamental Surgery platform, which also uses HaptX technology to provide realistic haptic feedback during a VR simulation, lets medical students have “hands-on” training that looks and feels real, almost as if they were standing in the operating room. The experience also replicates the feeling of holding surgical tools and cutting into human tissue that is accurate within sub millimeters. The keywords in that paragraph are “hands-on” training.

Education experts recognized the importance of being in a classroom environment with other students, but had to find a new way of doing things. FundamentalVR came up with a way to bridge that training gap, called Teaching Space. The unlimited multi-user virtual classroom is designed to help medical schools around the world who’ve been impacted by the pandemic; a virtual space where they’re able to get that crucial hands-on training while working with other students in a collaborative virtual environment.

Teaching Space explains surgical techniques in a virtual classroom. (Source: Fundamental VR)

This new VR learning space provides a safe environment for instructors to meet with trainees, no matter where they are located. Using a virtual whiteboard, instructors can present additional notes as they discuss procedures with their class. Further, Fundamental Surgery’s virtual operating room allows medical students to run demos of surgeries and get even more hands-on experience.

In an official press release, Peter Rainger, Chief Learning Officer at FundamentalVR said:

“Our new Teaching Space, which provides a collaborative environment for surgical education in VR, allows residents and KOLs from across the globe to come together for teaching sessions, to review cases and share their knowledge and skills. In our new Teaching Space, I can simply pick up a pen and draw out concepts on a whiteboard and allow trainees to annotate and write comments, all in real-time, whilst talking as if we were in the same room. The possibilities for this new flexible teaching space in the future are endless!”

With all of the tech tools that have been and are continuing to be developed, it’s clear technology will play a leading role in defeating the pandemic.

read more a vrscout.com