<At Seoul Asan Hospital Simulation Center, an employee is conducting CPR training while listening to an artificial intelligence instructor’s explanation in virtual reality. (Photo = Seoul Asan Medical Center)>
<Professor Sehun Choi, Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Asan Medical Center (Photo = Asan Medical Center)>
Seoul Asan Medical Center will expand virtual reality (VR) utilization training to all medical occupations, including wards, intensive care units, operating rooms, and outpatients.
Choi Se-hoon, a professor of thoracic surgery at Seoul Asan Medical Center (professor in charge of XR at the Simulation Center), said, "As the educational effect using VR is clear, we are developing programs that combine VR, augmented reality (AR), and extended reality (XR) technologies in various scenarios." announced on the 26th. Professor Choi said, “We will work with related companies to find ways to realize various educational targets, contents and goals.”
Asan Medical Center has been operating the Academy, an independent department specialized in medical education, for over 20 years. In particular, paying attention to the importance of education for nurses and doctors who directly meet patients in the field, in 2012, the simulation center was independent from the existing academy to provide simulation education. Under the Ministry of Education, it has 12 nurses and emergency medical technicians exclusively in charge of nurse and doctor simulation education, and there are 8 professors who advise on doctor education.
In mid-May, Seoul Asan Medical Center became the first hospital in Korea to introduce a CPR simulation program that uses VR to repeatedly train CPR in a virtual emergency situation similar to reality. For the first time, a dedicated VR training center was established where nurses can repeatedly experience major nursing skills, such as early response to emergency patients, handling of ventilators, and tracheostomy tube management, in a realistic environment.
The hospital plans to introduce VR education to all medical fields in the future. Nerve function evaluation for patients in the intensive care unit, troubleshooting related to ventilators, securing an artificial airway and suction training, simple checks of vital signs in the ward, intubation, fluid connection and removal, CPR training, and technical training for residents. The goal is to create a level of completeness that allows trainees who have received education to start working right away when they are put into their respective wards, intensive care units, operating rooms, or outpatient clinics.
The scope of simulation center education is also expanding. Already, departments such as faculty and nursing wards are requesting scenario development and training tailored to various clinical environments to the center.
The hospital plans to collaborate with various companies as it takes a lot of time to develop each scenario and improve the degree of completeness of the program. For VR-based CPR training, the 'CBS 2.0' model developed by Tetrasignum is used, and respiratory system intensive care unit scenarios and tracheotomy management scenarios using VR are developed with Perfect Storm.
VR is also applied to medical treatment and patient training. Provides psychological stability to cancer patients using VR. Research on pediatric palliative care is also being conceived to help pediatric patients understand the need for treatment and the treatment process. When meeting a patient abroad in an XR-based virtual clinic, we expect the amount of information conveyed to be effective in terms of interaction. To this end, plans to implement platforms such as operating rooms, lecture rooms, and outpatient clinics using the metaverse are also reviewed.
Professor Choi said, “We confirmed that the effect of VR education is incomparably higher than that of simple lecture-oriented education.” ·As nursing staff education is expected to change, VR education will replace many parts in the future.”
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