2004
AD:
Virtual
Reality Training
Now
a Requirement for
All
Healthcare Professionals
The American Medical Association has just
announced that starting next year, 2004, all medical schools will be required
to use virtual reality (VR) in their training of healthcare professionals.
Under these new guidelines, no healthcare professional will be permitted
to conduct medical procedures on human patients until they have passed
rigorous VR training. This ends the once common yet risky practice
of allowing doctors to learn using human subjects in the clinical setting.
Through VR modeling of a procedure, medical
students may practice techniques and operations in a way that does not
put patients at risk. In addition to training for common medical
procedures, VR will also be used to teach medical professionals to deal
with catastrophic emergencies and major disasters: earthquakes, plane crashes,
major fires, etc. VR will help medical staff to learn how to
allocate resources and prioritize cases for treatment.
Further applications of this technology
include physical and psychiatric rehabilitation and diagnosis. In
addition, VR has naturally extended to include unprecedented collaboration,
involving the sharing of information among individual medical staff and
across geographical locations.
Resources:
Virtual
Reality and Education Laboratory
http://www.soe.ecu.edu/vr/otherpgs.htm
East Carolina University, Greenville,
North Carolina
Virtual
Medical Worlds
http://www.hoise.com/vmw/00/articles/index.html
"monthly Virtual Magazine on Telemedicine
and High Performance Computing and Networking for readers interested in
computer applications in medical environments. " Often has articles
relevant to VR and medical education and training.
Anaesthesia
Training Program
http://www.maelstrom-vp.com/medical.htm
Maelstrom Virtual Productions, Ltd., UK
Endoscopic
Surgery Simulator
http://www.vsl.ist.ucf.edu/groups
/ieg/endoscop/endoscop.html
Visual Systems Lab, Institute for Simulation
and Training, University of Central Florida, Orlando
Medical
Readiness Trainer
http://www-vrl.umich.edu/mrt/
Virtual Reality Laboratory, MRT® -
College of Engineering, University of
Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Medical
Staff Training
http://www.argusvr.com/focus/profiles/medstaff.htm
Argus VR International
Minimally
Invasive Surgery Training
http://www.ukvrforum.org.uk/CaseStudies/mist.htm
(MIST VR) - Ethiskill
Patient
Education
http://www.argusvr.com/focus/profiles/pated.htm
Argus VR International
Pharmaceutical
Applications
http://www.maelstrom-vp.com/pharmaceutical.htm
(numerous medical applications illustrated)
-
Maelstrom Virtual Productions, Ltd, UK
The
Sheffield Knee Arthroscopy Training System
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~vrmbg/skats.html
Virtual Reality in Medicine and Biology
Group, University of Sheffield, UK
Virtual
Arthroscopic Knee Surgery Simulator
http://www.shef.ac.uk/~vrmbg/arthro1.html
Dr. Tony Trowbridge & Dr. Robin Hollands,
University of Sheffield, UK
Virtual
Medical Trainer
http://www.rti.org/vr/w/vmetsum.html
Research Triangle Institute, Research
Triangle Park, North Carolina
Virtual
Reality at Cine'-Med: Virtual Clinic; The Heart
http://www.cine-med.com/cinemed/vrweb.html
Cine'-Med, Woodbury, Connecticut
Virtual
Reality in Medicine: A Survey of the State of the Art
http://www.informatik.umu.se/~jwworth/medpage.html
(extensive; see especially sections 3.3-education
and training & 4-Sources & Resources) -
J. A. Waterworth, Umea University, Sweden
Virtual
Reality in Medicine Lab
http://www.sbhis.uic.edu/VRML/
University of Illinois at Chicago
Web-Based
Surgical Simulators
http://www.man.ac.uk/MVC/research/
visual/medical/VirtualSurgery/
Nigel John, University of Manchester,
UK & Nick Phillips, Leeds General Infirmary, UK
Mary Oberlander
LIS450ltl:
Bruce
September 26, 2000
