Immersive training scenarios highlight experiences of minority ethnic colleagues in health service
In one scene, a black nurse called Tunde is told by his manager that personal protective equipment (PPE) was being locked away at night to prevent its theft during night shifts, during the pandemic when ethnic minorities were more likely to work these hours.
In another, an Asian female doctor called Jasmine is dismissed by an HR manager after raising a double standard regarding requests for shift changes during the pandemic over childcare, something which her white colleagues were granted.
Living in the real world | Rot at the top | Playing away | BBC brouhaha
The philosopher David Chalmers asks us to embrace virtual worlds as a new reality (Report, 17 January), as “this is where humanity is heading”. Not for this human it isn’t. Thanks, but no thanks. I’ll stick to reality. Pete Lavender Nottingham
• While preparing for my interview for a headship, I came across the old adage that schools, like fish, rot from the head down. For some reason, that reminds me of the government. Bob Forster Shipton-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has meant not only hospitals having to improve their training procedures for staff and volunteers but also care homes and whose looking after the most vulnerable. A recent study conducted as part of the UK government’s TechForce19 challenge – in collaboration with VR training solution specialist Virti – has found improvements can be made when it comes to health and safety using immersive technology.
Provided with training on hand washing, donning and doffing PPE, and responding to an unresponsive patient (including resuscitation), carers in the randomised control interventional study were split between Virti’s solution and standard training.
A pre to post-training knowledge test found that on average carers who used immersive tech saw a performance increase of 230.1% in comparison to 16.75% for the control group. The test scores also highlighted the carers understanding of infection control measures was only 16% for the control group while the intervention group hit 92%, a significant difference of 76%.
“As a surgeon, it’s critical to me that our technology is evidence-based. As we roll out a completely new way to train, we want our users and customers to continue to see this platform as effective and reliable,” said Dr Alex Young, NHS surgeon and the founder of Virti in a statement. “Ensuring our care workers have the training they need to keep themselves and their patients safe is of critical importance.”
“Our care homes have taken the brunt of the impact during the pandemic, despite heroic efforts from staff, so we must ensure they are as prepared as possible to fight a potential second wave,” Young continues. “This study is an important step forward in how we can help that happen safely and at scale. The impact of digital, immersive training when it comes to knowledge retention and in reducing anxiety is evident from the findings of this study. We hope it starts a conversation around how we can better prepare the workforce for the future and for the challenges employees in any sector face.”
TechForce19 challenge awards UK innovators grants of £25,000 GBP to test solutions which support the elderly, vulnerable and self-isolating during COVID-19. Virti has been providing its healthcare training solution since 2018 and as it continues to make advancements, VRFocus will let you know.
A flock of students stumbling after a consultant on a ward round has long been a familiar sight in hospitals. Perhaps not for much longer though – a university has pioneered the use of augmented reality to allow students to take part from home.
Imperial College has conducted what it said is the world’s first virtual ward round for medical students, which means an entire class of 350 students can watch a consultant examining patients rather than the three or four who have been able to accompany them in person.
A flock of students stumbling after a consultant on a ward round has long been a familiar sight in hospitals. Perhaps not for much longer though – a university has pioneered the use of augmented reality to allow students to take part from home.
Imperial College has conducted what it said is the world’s first virtual ward round for medical students, which means an entire class of 350 students can watch a consultant examining patients rather than the three or four who have been able to accompany them in person.
When the UK Government put the country into lockdown due to the coronavirus (COVID)-19) pandemic it also requested volunteers to help with the influx of patients the National Heath Service (NHS) was expecting. Thousands of people did volunteer but that created another issue, how to suitably train so many people with critical COVID-specific skills. One method the NHS used was Virti’s immersive training solution.
The Bristol-based company’s technology was used to deliver remote educational programmes to NHS employees at scale, rolling out COVID-19 modules to staff via a virtual reality (VR) headsets, desktop or smart devices.
Virti’s software covered key areas such as how to safely apply and remove personal protective equipment (PPE), how to engage with patients and their families as well as navigating an unfamiliar intensive care ward. And because of the influx of staff tens of thousands of training sessions were recorded.
Previously selected to join the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) programme, Virti’s system uses AI to assess users and improve their performance after they’ve interacted with hospital environments and real patient cases in either VR or AR.
“We’ve been using Virti’s technology in our intensive care unit to help train staff who have been drafted in to deal with COVID-19 demand,” said Tom Woollard, West Suffolk Hospital Clinical Skills and Simulation Tutor in a statement. “The videos which we have created and uploaded are being accessed on the Virti platform by nursing staff, physiotherapists and Operational Department Practitioners (ODPs) to orient them in the new environment and reduce their anxiety. The tech has helped us to reach a large audience and deliver formerly labour-intensive training and teaching which is now impossible with social distancing. In the future, West Suffolk will consider applying Virti tech to other areas of hospital practice.”
Virti was founded in 2018 by NHS Trauma and Orthopedic surgeon Dr Alexander Young who was looking to improve healthcare training. The company is one of a number VRFocus has covered recently from the sector including Osso VR and Precision OS, two apps which specialise in surgical training.
As Virti continues to expand its immersive training solution, VRFocus will keep you updated.
Among the winners of the VR Awards 2018 was Virti, a healthcare training company which specialised in the use of both augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology. Today, Virti has announced that it’s been selected to join the UK’s NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) programme.
Founded by trauma and orthopaedic surgeon Dr Alexander Young, Virti uses immersive technology combined with AI to transport users into realistic, hard-to-access environments to safely assess them under pressure. This helps to reduce anxiety and improve human performance and outcomes regardless of geographical boundaries.
Since launching 12 months ago Virti has gained a large number of enterprise customers in the UK and US, and in the process won a number of high profile awards including the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh Triennial Innovation Prize and, most recently, winning the VR Healthcare Category at the VR Awards.
Since it launched in July 2015, the NHS’ National Innovation Accelerator programme has supported the implementation of 37 evidence-based healthcare innovations across more than 1,700 NHS sites.
“It is a huge honour to be selected onto the NHS’ NIA programme and a testament to our ongoing work with the UK’s National Health Service,” said Dr Young, CEO/Founder Virti in a statement. “We are delighted to be the first Virtual and Augmented Reality company selected onto the NIA and proud that our evidence-based VR/AR training platform will now be scaled to further hospitals, physicians and patients through the NIA. We are particularly excited to help deliver the NHS’ recently published ‘Staff and Learner Wellness Strategy to 2027’ and further demonstrate the positive impacts that immersive technology can have on corporates, employees and for healthcare.”
“The NHS Long Term Plan puts the latest technology and innovation at the heart of people’s care and the future of our health service. Right across the NHS patients are benefitting from world-beating innovations, spread as part of this programme,” adds Professor Stephen Powis, NHS Medical Director.
Virti offers a range of training scenarios to suit not only medical professionals but also enterprise, military, school and charity based needs, all at different pricing structures. For further updates as Virti continues to expand, keep reading VRFocus.
From my office next door to the scanner, I heard how traumatic the procedure was. I found a solution in the latest technology
As a physicist in the NHS, it’s not really my job to see patients. I am more the behind-the-scenes guy ensuring everything is safe and the machines are working.
New immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) are currently being used in many different ways. From gaming, automation, education and therapy, these immersive technologies are helping train as well as simplify communication between people. (If you need a quick guide comparison guide on these technologies, check out VRFocus‘s guide here). For the first time, three surgeons from Mumbai and London became digital 3D avatars in an operating theatre at The Royal London Hospital and were then able speak to one another in real-time to discuss on how to operate on the patient with the aid of pre-uploaded patient scans.
Aetho’s Thrive software on the Microsoft Hololens is a MR application all about connecting people and information in immersive environments. Professor Shafi Ahmed at the NHS’s The Royal London Hospital was doing a colonoscopy operation on a patient wearing a Microsoft Hololens – as seen in the image below. Professor Ahmed explains that they chose to do this project to “think about the way we communicate from doctor-to-doctor or doctor-to-patient.”
Professor Shafi Ahmed in an operating theatre, wearing a Microsoft Hololens.
Professor Ahmed was joined by Professor Shailesh Shrikhande, a Cancer Surgeon at Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai (the largest cancer hospital in India), as well as Mr Hitesh Patel, Consultant Colorectal Surgeon at BMI The London Independent Hospital. They were also joined by Ian Nott, Co-Founder and CTO of Aetho who was based in Atlanta, USA. All four participants wore a Microsoft Hololens, appearing as moving graphic avatars to one another, with each able to see and hear one another. They were able to look at pre-uploaded patient scans that appeared as three-dimensional holograms of the tumour. In the video below, you can see each specialist discuss and analyse the patient’s data through Professor Ahmed’s perspective, the footage captured from his Hololens.
VRFocus spoke to Professor Ahmed about the project in the video interview below. He explains that the team were connected into a virtual space where they could share the scans, images of the patients, interact with them and then discuss the case in more detail, similar to a multidisciplinary team meeting that surgeons normally do in healthcare practices. The experience was like having a very ‘lucid conversation’ about the patient. Apparently, after you get past the initial shock of feeling like Iron Man, the experience is no different to having a person sit next to you and conversing.
Professor Ahmed is very excited about being in the healthcare space right now and believes that they’re undergoing the fourth industrial revolution. “It’s a question about globalization, if you want help and support – well actually the whole world can support them. These are the type of technologies that will connect people, make the world much smaller and actually make healthcare more equitable”, he says. For the future of surgery, he’d like to teleport or ‘holoport’ himself into another part of the world, walk around the room, stand over the surgeon’s shoulder, see what they’re doing, give advice and then disappear. Although this might seem like this is far in the future, it’s the direction he sees it going and is something he is working on.
Aetho approached Professor Ahmed at Cannes Lions after seeing his talk about creating a digital avatar of himself using photogrammetry. Aetho were working on the concept of avatars, holograms and telepresence for their software Thrive. The two met and Professor Ahmed’s VR company Medical Realities then collaborated with Aetho and co-ordinated the project with the hospitals to do a world’s first MR conference call with 3D digital assets during a real-time surgery.
He explains that new technologies are severely needed because globally there is an increasing demand for healthcare, but not enough capacity to cope with it. Unfortunately, with little funding it’s difficult for public services like the NHS to justify new healthcare services. He hopes that by using new technologies such as these, that healthcare can be better, more efficient and eliminate the need to travel in order to do certain operations. He believes A.I. and robotic machines will take over routine jobs, and doctors as well as surgeons will have to re-design their roles in this future landscape.
Whatever the future holds, this is an exciting step for future healthcare operations. It could save a lot of money on expensive travel, save time on treating patients and free time for doctors and surgeons to treat more patients. If you want to find out more about the project, watch the video below. You can also find out more about how immersive technology is being implimented into the world of healthcare with VRFocus‘ The VR Doctor and Emotion Sensing series.
Where would we be without the emergency services? Well, in a lot of cases dead. Which is a frightening prospect. What they deal with on a daily basis is extraordinary. Today’s video focuses on the feats they do, and, from a personal point of view, the feats they accomplish close to home.
As part of a look at just what goes on in the health profession the BBC went behind the scenes and produced a new documentary, six minute long and filmed in 360 degrees. Called Ambulance VR, the video you join the paramedic team onboard an emergency response vehicle of the West Midlands Ambulance Service.
You have a front row seat, as well as the ambulance front seat, to the reaction to an emergency.
VRFocus is back on Friday with our third and final Life In 360° for the week. For a in-depth look at the healthservice and how VR is being used to teach those in the healthcare industry check out the most recent edition of The VR Doctor, here.
Aetho approached Professor Ahmed at Cannes Lions after seeing his talk about creating a digital avatar of himself using photogrammetry. Aetho were working on the concept of avatars, holograms and telepresence for their software Thrive. The two met and Professor Ahmed’s VR company Medical Realities then collaborated with Aetho and co-ordinated the project with the hospitals to do a world’s first MR conference call with 3D digital assets during a real-time surgery.