Innovative Simulation Technology Arrives at CDU( continued)
high-fidelity training. And one of the things that inspired me was the future prospects of virtual reality simulation.” He heard about a company that did virtual reality training for airline pilots. He found out that the company was expanding their services to serve the health care industry in 2017.
He attempted to implement this approach at White Memorial Hospital while employed as a hospital simulation administrator. Unfortunately, simulation being a capital-intensive strategy, there wasn’ t enough money to proceed.
When he came to CDU, it was a clean slate for him.“ We have the funds. We have the human resources, we have the capacity, and most importantly, we have the drive,” he said. The idea was presented to Dean Prothrow-Stith who gave her support and directed him to then-Provost Dr. Steve Michael. After Dr. Lam’ s appointment was solidified, the vision of implementing this technology by adding it to the University’ s strategic plan was complete.
He still works with colleagues at USC and UCLA.“ I’ m an alum of USC, and they’ re starting to implement this technology. I’ ve been working with their director, basically butting heads and sharing knowledge on what’ s the latest technology. They have not implemented virtual reality as of yet at USC. We want to beat their timeline so that we can say we were one of the first universities to establish both a virtual and augmented reality training program.
“ The company that does aviation and augmented reality, was just applying a layer of simulation over reality. It’ s not full computer simulated but it’ s partial, like Pokémon. You have a layer of surrealism over reality,” he noted.
By contrast, virtual reality is complete immersion inside the simulation system. Augmented reality offers viewers an overlay, so when it depicts a person giving birth, you can actually see and go through the scenario without buying all the equipment. You can have one mannequin that is benign. And you can add whatever software you want, from labor and delivery to stopping the bleeding. Anything you want. You only have to change the software and not the hardware platform, which makes it more cost effective.
“ We have simulation that we adapted mainly for the nursing school. It is virtual, designed for immersive reality. You put on the visor and completely block yourself out from reality. Everything that you see is computer generated. We use this technology with Elsevier, a major textbook publisher with hundreds of case scenarios. Our nursing students can choose any case that they want and walk into any scenario background that they choose to treat this patient. Learning decision skills. You have cognitive skills, and tactile skills as well,” he added.
How is this VR and AR technology operational?“ We create avatars. All of the students sit in the classroom about six feet apart. Everyone puts on their visor, and they’ re suddenly immersed into an artificial classroom, or a patient room with a sitting patient. The instructor puts on the visor, and all of the students and instructor are now virtually inside the same simulation room. We see each other’ s avatar. We are there interacting with each other virtually. Technically, you could be in your office, and I could be in another part of LA, or at our own homes, and we’ re all suddenly immersed into one virtual location.”
Is everyone seeing the same imagery, or is the instructor a bit ahead of the students?“ Everyone is seeing the same imagery from their perspective. Multiple participants can share simultaneously. When you log in, when a student sees it, this is what they will be seeing: you walk into a patient room and their hands virtually can grab something and put a nasal cannula on the patient. And then plug it into the hospital, whatever training scenario they choose is realistic to them.
“ That’ s their virtual hand because they wear gloves. When you see another person there, that’ s the instructor and that’ s the avatar. You go and grab the patient, put on the IV, insert an IV line, grab something from the crash cart, or something from the cabinet. Whatever they want is within that realistic world, the virtual world where you have all this equipment, the same equipment that we use in a simulation center, the physical equipment, and also in the hospital.
“ We can also bring them on site, to different locations and outside of the training center wherever we want. There’ s over hundreds of scenarios and they can work together. When you put on a visor, you are immersed 360 degrees. When you look back, you see stuff behind you. You look on top, you see a ceiling, you look down and see the floor. Wherever you go, you don’ t see yourself. You see this virtual image of who you have become,” added Dr. Lam.
There are more than 150 available training scenarios.“ Students are engaged in learning which allows them to make all the mistakes inherent in the learning process. The goal is of course to improve patient outcomes. And the great part about this technology is that there’ s an emotional aspect you can get that you cannot get by using physical simulation like a mannequin. Here you can hear people cry, you feel the emotion; you see it, you hear it. Your hand vibrates when you touch something and do something wrong. It engages our students’
CDU College of Medicine | PG. 10