Hospitals in Australia are beginning to use virtual reality technology to practice life-saving procedures, reducing training time from months to days.
In an interview with Healthcare computer news, Vantari VR, an Australian VR company, said four tertiary hospitals have used their critical care VR training platform, including Fiona Stanley Hospital, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Westmead Hospital and Nepean hospital.
Using flight simulator technology, Vantari VR offers medical training using virtual reality headsets and laptops. Its modules cover 90% of medical procedures as part of basic physician training and offer the steps recommended by university guidelines.
At their partner hospitals, doctors and junior students were commissioned to perform three to five procedure sessions using the Vantari VR platform before they could perform the procedure on patients.
At Fiona Stanley Hospital, for example, more than 20 recorders have been educated to perform thoracic drainage insertions.
“It was much faster than waiting for a workshop day (weeks-months) or an entire simulation workshop (takes a day), compared to about 10 minutes of our software. It’s also more attractive than using online modules such as videos or literature, “said Dr. Nishanth Krishnananthan, co-founder of Vantari VR.
In addition to reducing training times, the use of RVs can save hospitals “millions of dollars” in medical compensation each year by minimizing medical errors, the RV company said. According to the study Quality in Australian Health Care, around 18,000 people can die each year in hospitals due to medical errors.
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In April, Vantari VR received an award Grant of $ 100,000 from Epic Games, the American video game company behind the online game Fortnite. The startup is currently seeking to raise $ 2 million from a round of funding that will close in August.
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“The ability to practice and learn life-saving procedures in virtual reality before having to perform these procedures on real patients has a great benefit. The cost of medical education in terms of infrastructure, equipment and educator time or student is important, ”said Dr. Robert Swart, Anesthesia Consultant and Innovation Leader at Fiona Stanley Hospital.
“With virtual reality, you can provide education in almost any area [such as] a small office space where you can load several different educational scenarios instantly without the need for equipment, mannequins, etc. and the student can do self-directed education, ”he added.