08/07/2022
Door Ad Spijkers
Doctors at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge (UK) use HoloScenarios, a new training application based on lifelike holographic patient scenarios
A new collaboration between Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) and the University of Cambridge's Faculty of Education brings medical training using mixed reality technology a step closer. The project aims to make consistent, high-quality and relevant clinical training more accessible worldwide.
HoloScenarios
HoloScenarios is a new training application based on lifelike holographic patient scenarios. A kind of virtual robots, in other words. It is being developed by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) in cooperation with the University of Cambridge and the Los Angeles-based technology company GigXR. The first module focuses on common respiratory diseases and emergency situations. HoloScenarios aims to centralise and streamline access and management of mixed reality learning, and to encapsulate the medical experience of leading clinicians at CUH and the University of Cambridge.
Mixed reality is increasingly recognised as a useful method for simulator training. As institutions scale up buy-in, the demand for platforms that provide usability and convenience for mixed reality learning management is rapidly increasing. Students in the same room wearing Microsoft HoloLens mixed reality headsets can see each other in real life. At the same time, they also interact with a multi-layered, medically accurate holographic patient. This creates a unique environment to learn and practice essential, real-time decision-making and treatment choices.
Lifelike
Using the same type of headset, lecturers can also change patients' reactions, introduce complications and record observations and discussions - either in person, in a teaching group or remotely via the Internet to multiple locations.
Students can also watch, contribute to and review the holographic patient scenarios from an Android or iOS smartphone or tablet. This means that true-to-life, fail-safe immersive learning can be accessed, delivered and shared around the world. This is possible with the technology now available for licensing to educational institutions around the world.
Support during training
Research at Cambridge is focused on discovering how such simulations can best support learning. They also want to accelerate the adoption of effective mixed reality training. The researchers hope that the technology will help institutions implement mixed reality in their curricula. They can then evaluate conventional resources (such as textbooks, manikins, models or computer software) in the same way and ultimately improve patient outcomes.
The first students to try the new technology would have situations during their medical education in which actors would act as patients. With the pandemic, much of this changed to tablet-based interactions, given the risk to humans from the virus. Having a hologram patient that they can see, hear and communicate with will really make a difference to their learning, according to the students.
The first module features a hologram patient with asthma, followed by anaphylaxis, pulmonary embolism and pneumonia. Further modules in cardiology and neurology are in development. The new technology could also provide more flexible, economical training without the heavy resources that traditional simulation requires, which can make immersive training financially prohibitive. This includes maintaining simulation centres, their equipment and the faculty and staff hours to run the laboratories and hire and train patient actors.
Photo: University of Cambridge