Virtual Reality
A TWC project
Medical
Simulation Virtual Reality in the aspects of training and therapeutic
Virtual Reality Surgical Training
Virtual Reality Surgical Training provides the trainee with a computer generated, photo-realistic rendition of the patient’s condition. This allows the trainee to master surgery techniques in high-risk procedures such as laparoscopic surgery.
The surgery table has recently received a new addition of robot surgeon which aids in laparoscopic surgery. Laparoscopic surgery is minimally invasive surgery that creates smaller cuts to get the job done (meaning that the cut would be too small for the surgeon to see through. This robot surgeon has been found to be more dexterous, more accurate and faster than a regular surgeon at the table. However, this surgeon does operate autonomously, it is completely in the control of a trained surgeon. The surgeon, while gaining all of these benefits also faces a few disadvantages.
When the surgeon operates using the robot surgeon, he has to contend with less sensory feedback. He sees the patient’s body through a fiber-optic camera which does provide for depth perception. As he is controlling the robot’s hands, it would be difficult to manipulate the tools effectively is one is not used to the lack of touch senses (despite the haptic feedback). Virtual reality provides for an excellent measure to aid in the training of surgeons in laparoscopic surgery.
A screen, a couple of joysticks and almost photo-realistic graphics are at the disposal of today’s laparoscopic surgeon trainees. The simulator in the picture, Limbs and Things UK’s LapSim is one of the simulators readily available for use. By providing the trainee with a safe, controlled and clearly artificial environment to train in, the trainee can gain valuable hands-on experience without the risk of damaging anyone or anything.
Video 1. Virtual reality helps ready surgeons for the operating room.
Reproduced from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fIxD_uA6Uo&feature=youtu.be
Image 4. Limbs and Things UK.
Reproduced from http://limbsandthings.com/uk/products/lapsim-laparoscopic-trainer
Psychiatric Treatment
Virtual Reality has been used by some doctors to recreate the scenes that induces the phobia and stress in the patient at varying degrees of intensity. By consistently exposing the person to the stress-inducing stimulus (such as a virtual Iraq war-scene for traumatized soldiers), the person is eventually desensitized and will no longer be affected by the scene again.
By using virtual reality headsets, patients who suffer from specific phobias (such as arachnophobia and social phobia) and posttraumatic stress disorder, can be exposed to varying degrees of exposure to their anxiety provoking stimuli. This allows the psychiatrist to adjust the degree of the environment to help desensitize the patient to their feared stimulus.
For instance, someone who is afraid of social interactions can be made to recite a speech to a virtual audience. The size and reactions of this audience can be controlled by the practitioner; creating audiences who can be interested, bored, disinterested and those who simply get up and leave. Repeated exposure will help the patients eventually overcome their phobias through the eventual “extinction” of the reaction.
A psychiatrist named Dr. Difede has been working with virtual reality to solve the stress and phobia problems of her clients. She began by making a virtual reality plane that helps to overcome the patients’ fear of flying. When the 9/11 incident occurred, she started creating a virtual world recreating those scenes to help traumatized victims and rescue workers. Thanks to the exposure to these environments that the patients can control, the patients slowly but surely become habituated with the traumatizing experience and soon be cured of the trauma. She is currently expanding her disaster repertoire to include kitchen fires, Hurricane Katrina and a Virtual Iraq - for war related trauma.
Video 2.Virtual reality battles PTSD.
Reproduced from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z56PE8SpFR8&feature=youtu.be
Image 5. Virtual Life-Saver.
Reproduced from http://www.sandia.gov/media/NewsRel/NR1999/biosim.htm
Emergency Response Training
A scenario, such as a terrorist bomb attack at an airport, is played out with the trainee needing to respond to it. The trainee needs to tend to the virtual patients at the site, providing first aid, and keeping him/herself safe.
Emergency response training involves pitting the player in a situation, such as a terrorist attack, where he or she has to contend with saving the lives of virtual victims. The players wear Head Mounted Displays and sensors strapped onto their arms, legs and waist to interact with the virtual environment.
In this simulation, players will have to identify the various symptoms plaguing the victims, diagnose the situation and treat the patients accordingly. The patients would exhibit a variety of conditions including inhaling toxins, psychological shock, chest wounds, and head trauma. The player has to read the victim’s visual indicators: What’s his skin colour? How is he breathing? Temperature? Heart rate? If the player isn’t fast enough, the patient could die.
A virtual medical kit is at the disposal of the player to help the players treat the patients. The player will have to use the tools in the kit to carry out initial decontamination procedures at first - such as placing the masks over the patients’ mouths or placing monitoring equipment next to the patient. However, if the player fails to take personal safety into account (inhaling the toxic substances themselves) they could die a quick death too.
Players who die a quick virtual death aren’ t going to forget it in a hurry. With the safe environment provided through virtual reality, the leeway to make mistakes helps to avoid the same mistakes being performed in real life. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has seen the usefulness of such a system and has kicked off the first phase of its immersive virtual reality training program for first-responders in 2009.