Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are two contemporary simulation models that are currently upgrading medical education. VR provides a 3D and dynamic view of structures and the ability of the user to interact with them. The recent technological advances in haptics, display systems, and motion detection allow the user to have a realistic and interactive experience, enabling VR to be ideal for training in hands-on procedures. Consequently, surgical and other interventional procedures are the main fields of application of VR.
Modern VR training, although widely regarded as beneficial for education, is still somewhere between excitement and skepticism. It is easy to understand the latter, since many medical professionals were trained using traditional methods and are more comfortable with these methods despite their limitations. Others point at successful implementations of VR in the cultural field. For example, it’s now possible for an entire class of students to visit the Louvre from anywhere in the world or to go on a virtual ‘field trip’ inside the human body. What was once considered impossible has now become possible in our virtual world.
Virtual reality and augmented reality are the current trends in medical education. VR is the virtual construction of an artificial world. The key element of VR is the high level of user’s immersion over the virtual environment, namely, the high level of structures’ fidelity, as well as the interaction of the user with them in a realistic manner. This has become recently available, as it requires high standards of certain technologies, including advanced haptic devices with force-feedback capabilities (bidirectional stimuli), high-resolution audio-visual effects, motion detection technology, and high-performance processing power to transmit, and processes all this information with near-zero latency.
As pressure to increase delivery of simulation continues, VR simulation will continue to expand. Rather than simulation being an occasional, faculty-led, day-long event, VR will allow simulation to be more like going to the gym. Learners will be able to do a scenario at the end of their shift or even at home, allowing continual improvement in performance to suit learner needs.
The standardization and scoring possible with VR will make it commonplace in assessment and recruitment. In time, VR will become used routinely for continuing medical education and revalidation and become a benchmark to ensure clinical competency and patient safety across healthcare systems.
