Augmented reality in medical education?

Information Technologies in Medicine, Volume I: Medical Simulation and Education

Contents:

Request permission to reuse content from this title.

The Medical Simulation Center - Loma Linda University

Please read our Privacy Policy. Print this page Share. Description The two volumes of Information Technologies in Medicine thoroughly explore the use of VR technology in three-dimensional visualization techniques, realistic surgical training prior to patient contact, and actual procedures in rehabilitation and treatment, including telemedicine and telesurgery. Editors Akay and Marsh have brought together all the available information on the subject of VR technologies in medicine and medical training to create the first comprehensive guide to the state of the art in medicine for use by students, doctors, and researchers.

Virtual Reality for Health Care L. Medical Simulation and Education.

Wiley-IEEE Press

The latter includes the ability to envision depth and 3D, from 2D camera displays. An expert surgeon appears to execute both skills effortlessly and fluently. Part-task practice is deemed the most effective training method for achieving excellent and automated mastery of such complex psychomotor skills [ 2 , 25 ]. Part-task practice involves repeated and varied practice of a recurrent, constituent skill until a high level of automation is reached [ 2 ]. In the domain of laparoscopy training, many examples exist of AR applications that support such part-task practice with training scenarios that allow for training specific surgical procedures combining different motor abilities and anatomical structures to work on.

Botden and Jakimowicz [ 27 ] review four AR applications for laparoscopic surgery on their features, the extent to which empirical results support learning and their benefits. In these training environments, trainees train certain laparoscopic procedures with the same instruments as used in the OR. Basic recurrent skills are, for example, navigation with the trocars, and touching or grasping of tissue. More advanced recurrent skills that can be trained are transection or cutting, diathermia heating of body tissue , dissection, or suturing.

Mystical Poetry (The Mystic Knowledge Series).
Learn more about;
Wiley-IEEE Press: System Theory and Practical Applications of Biomedical Signals - Gail D. Baura.
Petal Storm.

Trainees train on a manikin on which overlays of anatomical information are projected and the visual pathways of the laparoscopic instruments are shown. Sometimes the learning task is combined with a demonstration video and performance of the trainee is recorded. The ProMIS system, for instance, combines a manikin with a laptop computer.

Inside the manikin a tracking system measures the position and velocity of the surgical instruments. These data are subsequently visualized on screen. Compared with real training environments the so-called box trainers and virtual reality training environments, the AR laparoscopy environments offer realistic haptic feedback which is essential for the transfer of laparoscopic skills to the work environment [ 28 , 29 ].

In addition, these AR laparoscopy environments do not require an expert on-site to observe or guide the trainee. These three examples of AR training systems are only a very limited selection of what is out there: Yet, they already highlight the potential of this technology for learning and transfer. That potential is reflected in the use of the physical real-life context or a context very similar to that , the advanced visualization capacity and simulation of other sensory information.

And the training systems offer by large an active learning experience, in which interaction with the real world and direct feedback are paramount. Now that this potential merit is clear and we see the implementation of several dedicated training systems, a relevant question is what the empirical evidence for learning is. When we look at empirical studies on learning effects supported by AR technology, a number of relevant types of research questions can be distinguished:.

Each of these research questions gives a relevant answer to the potential usefulness and effectiveness of AR supported learning. To our knowledge no empirical evidence has been published yet upon the effects of the Miracle for anatomy education.

The Supernatural in Modern English Fiction.
Small Chicken Coop Construction;
Wiley-IEEE Press: Information Technologies in Medicine, 2 Volume Set - Metin Akay, Andy Marsh.

As for training with the dynamic 3D lungs, apart from assessing technical system behaviour, no empirical evidence on learning effects is known to us. Limited empirical evidence for AR laparoscopy training systems is available.

Botden [ 29 ] for instance investigates ProMIS and assesses the extent to which the learning tasks in ProMIS sufficiently match the actual tasks to be performed during surgery. This is research that matches the first type of research question. The effect study reveals that both expert surgeons as well as surgeons-in-training judge the level of fidelity as sufficient and they estimate the didactic potential of ProMIS as a training tool to be large. More research within the medical domain has been published on the effects of AR systems for learning but the results give a rather fragmented picture and no review studies have been performed yet.

No firm conclusions can be drawn upon the established merit of AR for medical learning. Thus, we wonder what the status of AR for learning in other domains is and what is published in systematic reviews about that. An augmented reality game combines mobile technology, gaming and geospecific activities with augmented content.

The study results substantiate the motivational potential of augmented reality games and the potential to enhance knowledge acquisition. The limitations of this review are the fact that no established empirical results of AR are or could be reported. In addition, the augmented reality games all applied different game dynamics making an objective comparison difficult. These studies recognized learning benefits of AR systems specifically in the area of visualizing invisible or abstract concepts in order to promote conceptual understanding of dynamic models and complex causality.

These studies also pointed out the motivational benefits of these systems and the role that immersion may play in that respect. This review did not include a systematic comparison of reported learning effects within different research designs. Because no review studies have been done within the medical domain, there is a lack of a deep and systematic understanding of how AR can enhance complex learning in this domain.

Description

Also across domains no firm empirical results could be identified upon the effects of AR supported learning. We therefore suggest a systematic review of empirical research across domains on the characteristics of learning tasks in AR environments of interest to the medical domain and their established learning effects. The main question of this article was what AR is and what it could bring to the field of complex medical learning.

Learning supported with AR technology enables ubiquitous, collaborative and situated learning. It delivers a sense of presence, immediacy and immersion that may be beneficial to the learning process [ 7 ]. The affordances of such learning environments have the potential to stimulate meaningful learning, a necessary prerequisite for transfer of learning to occur. In the end, we of course aim for professionals who demonstrate excellence in the clinic.

Compared with studies of more mature educational technologies, many empirical studies upon the effects of AR whether within the medical domain or outside still focus on the development, usability and initial implementation of AR as a learning tool [ 7 ].

In order to establish the educational value of AR, the identified research questions need to be followed through with an adequate research design that includes large enough samples and valid measurements. Only then will the real merit of such advanced learning systems become clear.

In that respect, we are on the eve of exploring the added value of AR for learning in the medical domain. Implementing such a novelty in the curriculum for medical professionals requires thoughtful development, its adoption only possible after empirical effect studies have proven the added value of AR for learning.

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of PME and Drs. Marjolein Zee for their thoughtful comments on this article. She consults in educational development projects with a special interest in technology enhanced learning, and provides educational training to physicians. She has a special interest in serious gaming and simulation in health care. She completed her theses on validation and implementation of simulation in the surgical curriculum. She is the President of the Dutch Society for Simulation in Health Care, and her research field is in the area of medical simulation and serious gaming development, validation studies and implementations.

Her interests include medical education, instructional systems design, serious games, simulation and augmented reality, clinical reasoning, naturalistic decision making and team training. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List Perspect Med Educ v. Published online Jan Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author s and the source are credited.

This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract Learning in the medical domain is to a large extent workplace learning and involves mastery of complex skills that require performance up to professional standards in the work environment.

Augmented reality in medical education?

Augmented reality, Technology enhanced learning, Medical applications, Transfer of learning. Introduction The medical domain is a domain in which complex learning occurs [ 1 , 2 ]. Meaningful learning is [ 4 ]: AR learning environments do not always require an expert or instructor to observe trainee performance. What is augmented reality and how does it work? Milgram, Takemura, Utsumi, and Kishino [ 12 ] place AR in between reality real environment and virtuality virtual environment on the reality-virtuality continuum.

This is a continuous scale ranging between reality, where everything is physical, and virtual reality, where a complete virtual environment is created by a computer. Mixed reality is located between them, and includes augmented reality AR and augmented virtuality AV.

Open in a separate window. The Advantages of Using Ultrasound in Medicine. A General Statement on Safety. Some Common Applications of Ultrasound. Longitudinal Waves in Fluids. Typical Acoustic Properties of Tissues. Answers to Exemplary Problems. Professor Azhari received his doctorate in biomedical engineering from the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology in From to , he was on the staff of the Technion Department of Biomedical Engineering in a postdoctoral position.

Upon his return to Israel in , he joined the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion-IIT as a staff member, where he is currently an associate professor. Medical Image Analysis, 2nd Edition. Identification of Nonlinear Physiological Systems.