Virtual Reality within the Medical Field

Ashleen, Thomas, Grace, Paige and Harrison’s Blog

Project Proposal

Topic: Virtual Reality

Should the medical field adopt virtual reality?

Firms within the medical field should adopt virtual reality because it could improve the care given to patients and help train future doctors. Virtual reality can provide a safe way for doctors in training to practice the necessary skills that they must acquire. They would be able to do this in a safe environment where their actions will not have an actual impact on a patient. For example, future surgeons could have more practice with performing complex operations which could result in more successful surgeries.

Business Problem

Issue within the medical field: In the medical field today, there is a lot of risk when preforming surgeries. Surgeons must practice 50-100 cases before performing an actual surgery. During these practices, large amounts of equipment is wasted on practice, instead of being used on real surgeries.

Solutions

Alternative Solution #1: Cadavers: Cadavers are an alternate solution to virtual reality. This has been the tried and trued way of many surgeons and students for many years. They have been used for three main reasons of teaching future doctors and surgeons, disease research, and forensic research. They teach the future doctors and surgeons about human anatomy and body systems and they are also ideal for practicing medical procedures. Cadavers are crucial in disease research because they can use these bodies to trace back the symptoms and effects of the disease in the body. They are also used to study neurodegenerative disorders. Lastly they are used in forensic research. Forensic researchers can study the decomposition of bodies from many scenarios and the data they collect from this research helps them gain insights into forensic cases.

“How Cadavers Are Used to Advance Science and Learning: A Closer Look from a Funeral Planner in Lake City, FL.” ICS Cremation & Funeral Home, 20 Sept. 2017, icsfuneralservices.com/2017/09/how-cadavers-are-used-to-advance-science-and-learning-a-closer-look-from-a-funeral-planner-in-lake-city-fl/.

Alternative Solution #2: Monitoring procedures: Monitoring procedures is another alternative solution to Virtual Reality, however, is not necessarily the more effective. When monitoring procedures, surgeons need to perform and practice up to anywhere between 50-100 cases before performing on an actual person. Even with this training of continuous practice and monitoring, some surgeons are still unable to operate independently. Virtual reality can not only save the time it takes for surgeons to operate 50-100 times, but materials and resources as well. Virtual reality is much more affordable and accessible when all a surgeon needs are a headset and a motion controller for each hand. Overall, it is clear that monitoring procedures is not a very practical and cost-effective way of training surgeons when compared to using virtual reality.

Barad, Justin, et al. “Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality Can Improve Surgeons’ Training.” STAT, 16 Aug. 2019, http://www.statnews.com/2019/08/16/virtual-reality-improve-surgeon-training/.

Alternative Solution #3: Case studies: Another solution to help new doctors gain experience is case studies which are not as productive as using virtual reality. Case studies do have some benefits but virtual reality is more efficient and effective. The reason why case studies are not as effective as virtual reality is because it is not a hands-on experience but more based on reading for an extensive amount of time. Case studies cannot be replicated as easily as virtual reality because of this it does not give the doctors any hands-on experience which could benefit them in the future with the different surgeries they are practicing for. Virtual reality will help the new doctors by giving them a simulation of what the surgeries will be like compared to just reading about it from the case study.

“The Strengths and Weaknesses of Case Studies.” UniversalClass.com, http://www.universalclass.com/articles/business/a-case-studies-strengths-and-weaknesses.htm.

Why virtual reality is still the best solution: Virtual reality is the best solution because it is the most cost effective and time saving option. Virtual reality gives surgeons a chance to practice as many times as they need to without the massive waste of resources that it takes to practice the cases 50-100 times. Millions of dollars are wasted in hospitals every year just on training surgeons on new procedures, by using VR to learn these procedures, all the money saved can go towards the patients. Also, by allowing surgeons to be able to practice these surgeries hands-on whenever they have free time and be able to repeat the procedure as many times as they feel, speeds up the process in which surgeons have to practice the 50-100 cases before actually performing said surgery on a patient. Virtual reality is the best of the three solutions. It is also shown that surgeons who were trained with VR complete procedures 20% faster and completed 38% steps more correctly than those who practiced with the solutions listed previously.

“Virtual Reality in the Healthcare Industry.” VISUALISE, visualise.com/virtual-reality/virtual-reality-healthcare.

Barad, Justin, et al. “Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality Can Improve Surgeons’ Training.” STAT, 16 Aug. 2019, http://www.statnews.com/2019/08/16/virtual-reality-improve-surgeon-training/.

Implementation

Implementation of virtual reality into the medical field: Surgeons can now take scans that they have already completed such as CT and MRI scans as well as angiograms to create a 3D image of the organ or body part in question using virtual reality. This allows the surgeon or doctor in training to manipulate the specimen and be able to see exactly what needs to be done without having to even touch the patient.

This technology helps to train surgical residents because their instructor can show up as an avatar in their virtual reality space and show them particular points of interest within the body part being studied. “The system allows instructors to highlight different components of the brain, such as arteries to show an aneurysm, bones to show skull deformities or tissue to show a tumor, while rotating the view to illustrate how a tumor or aneurysm looks from different angles” (“Virtual Reality System Helps Surgeons, Reassures Patients”). Instructors are able to demonstrate and walk the residents through how to perform a particular surgery within the virtual reality setting.

Medical Center Development. “Virtual Reality System Helps Surgeons, Reassures Patients.” Medical Center Development, medicalgiving.stanford.edu/news/virtual-reality-system-helps-surgeons-reassures-patients.html.

Prototype

This video demonstrates how virtual reality within the medical field can work and why it is helpful.

Project Summary

Group Presentation:

References

Barad, Justin, et al. “Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality Can Improve Surgeons’ Training.” STAT, 16 Aug. 2019, http://www.statnews.com/2019/08/16/virtual-reality-improve-surgeon-training/.

“Virtual Reality in the Healthcare Industry.” VISUALISE, visualise.com/virtual-reality/virtual-reality-healthcare.

“The Strengths and Weaknesses of Case Studies.” UniversalClass.com, http://www.universalclass.com/articles/business/a-case-studies-strengths-and-weaknesses.htm.

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