Creating virtual reality medical simulations

Abstract

Abstract This chapter describes the step-by-step approach to creating a virtual reality (VR) simulation for medical education, training, and performance assessment, as well as an example of the tools and methods that can be applied. VR simulations can be used onsite as part of a simulation centre or independently offsite, by individual learners or teams of learners, as well as used interactively by teams over distance at different sites in distributed VR environments. VR allows students and trainees to be uniquely immersed and engaged in lifelike situations where they can learn without suffering the consequences that may occur due to lack of experience(1).With VR, as with simulation in general, students are offered a type of experiential training that would otherwise be impossible to achieve, a safe environment to make mistakes and improve performance through practice. Simulation training is especially important in medical education where students are expected to learn how to react in high-risk situations where human lives are potentially at stake. VR simulation for training and education represents ‘serious games’ that provide an opportunity for students to apply important concepts while thinking on their feet without endangering themselves or others, opportunities to improve understanding, gain confidence in application of their knowledge and skills. In addition, through a process called reification, VR can create environments in which participants could not normally interact, environments that are not normally accessible but that could be produced for improving comprehension of otherwise abstract concepts, making them appear concrete with which the learner can interact(2).Virtual reality simulations of complex or abstract concepts offer powerful tools to improve human comprehension and understanding of those concepts, through the process of ‘reification’ in which those abstractions can be made to appear concrete and with which the learner can interact.