The time to learn bronchoscopy has come! The more I read about the VR applications in medical care, the more I wonder how medical practice looked before?
In the case of virtual training, the answer is simple: everything is done in a controlled environment; the patient will not suffer unnecessarily; there is no threat to life, and overwhelming stress won’t beat a young adept in medical science. It is; however, possible to be really trained, by repeating procedures, studying cases, learning to respond appropriately to changes in the patient’s vital signs. This might happen even during a routine procedure. Things can always go wrong and it’s good to be prepared.
“Learn from mistakes” – imagine that a doctor tells you this! The VR devices are designed precisely to make mistakes while training. And of course, good training increases the trainee’s professional competence.
The medical industry once again proves that it can see a lot of potential in VR training applications. The program implemented by the American College of Chest Physicians, and developed by 3D Systems, includes a diagram clinical work to evaluate patients, based on a practical approach, assessment, use of appropriate procedures, selection of the best techniques, and monitoring results + prevention.
Bronchoscopy is the endoscopic examination of the airways. It is performed not only for diagnostic purposes but also during the removal of neoplastic lesions. If ever someone was to push the tube through my nose to the lungs and make there some treatment, I would like to be sure he would hit the right hole.
Another new feature of the training device has is the possibility to practice eye surgery. If you’re wondering how previously ophthalmologists trained the surgery, the answer is: on pigs, exactly, they practiced on pig’s eyes. Absolutely I’m not saying it’s wrong, but it is difficult to imagine and understand the conditions at which doctors practice in the XXI century. I was similarly surprised when learned about surgery procedures, where the key role in surgical training played the morgue. Yes, professional training are made on the corpses.
Virtual reality gives incomparably more than just accurate anatomical models of the human body. When performing a variety of treatments or surgeries, doctors get information on how the patient’s body reacts and they can see how life’s parameters are changing. These intricate and complex simulations are created with the participation of numerous experts in their fields. Although most of them (simulators) are used in university hospitals, some of them have already been allocated to commercial sales.
Eyesi – eye surgery simulator – costs $ 150,000. Yet, the information that patients’ health is the most important while money is just money shows that we are moving in the right direction.
