Internationale Partnersuche

Innovation & Technologie Angebot

Emergency medicine virtual reality training technology for medical students, healthcare professionals and military personnel.

Country of Origin: Latvia
Reference Number: TOLV20210115001
Publication Date: 18 January 2021

Summary

An SME from Latvia has developed a virtual reality emergency medicine technology as a tool for training of medical students,  healthcare professionals and military personnel. The SME offers research and/or customisation cooperation agreement to research and education institutions, medical simulation centres, SMEs and other stakeholders for involvement in case studies for testing the technology efficiency or development of training courses to specific use cases.

Description

The virtual training is important in cases when training in real environment is problematic or can cause serious disasters, e.g. in aviation where flight simulators are used for training of pilots. Comparable situation is in case of emergency medicine, when immediate decisions and actions of aid providers are of critical importance. Virtual simulators for training of aid providers can be used to help trainees memorize what actions have to be taken in a given situation and prepare them for critical emergency situations.

Medical simulation, or more broadly, healthcare simulation, is a branch of simulation related to education and training in medical fields of various industries. Simulations can be held in the classroom, in situational environments, or in spaces built specifically for simulation practice. It can involve simulated human patients - artificial, human or a combination of the two, educational documents with detailed simulated animations, casualty assessment in homeland security and military situations, emergency response, and support virtual health functions with holographic simulation. In the past, its main purpose was to train medical professionals to reduce error during surgery, prescription, crisis interventions, and general practice. Combined with methods in debriefing, it is now also used to train students in anatomy, physiology, and communication during their schooling. Specifically, in trauma field exist Advanced trauma life support (ATLS) program. It is a training program for medical providers in the management of acute trauma cases, developed by the American College of Surgeons. Similar programs exist for immediate care providers such as paramedics. The program has been adopted worldwide in over 60 countries. Its goal is to teach a simplified and standardized approach to trauma patients. Originally designed for emergency situations where only one doctor and one nurse are present, ATLS is now widely accepted as the standard of care for initial assessment and treatment in trauma centres. The premise of the ATLS program is to treat the greatest threat to life first. It also advocates that the lack of a definitive diagnosis and a detailed history should not slow the application of indicated treatment for life-threatening injury, with the most time-critical interventions performed early. However, there is no high-quality evidence to show that ATLS improves patient outcomes as it has not been studied.

An SME from Latvia has developed alternative 3D software technology which sets a new technological standard that combines the life-like human anatomical visualizations with an unparalleled, immersive, and real-time virtual reality clinical training experience what saves time and resources. A proprietary virtual reality emergency medicine decision trainer runs on a standalone virtual reality headset, laptop as a desktop application, off the network, does not need an instructor to be present or multiplayer can be used. The technology helps to improve trauma management skills for  medical students, healthcare professionals and military personnel. The combination of interactive interface and a real-world feel tests the user's ability to identify the injuries, perform a physical assessment, prioritize the injuries, and make decisions in real-time. Virtual reality grading and feedback built into the system give insight into the user's performance, such as the time spent on interventions, correct or incorrect sequence of actions, and the medical devices and tools used. The company is looking for research partners, early adopters and distributors of Medical Training Equipment.

Other collaboration options would be considered.

Advantages and Innovations

The technology has already been tested in military hospitals in USA and has proven its value; 

- The technology improves competency, reduces costs and curtails the risk of medical personnel mistakes;

- Physicians and medical students can test and refine their decision-making abilities and analytical skills (according to ATLS-Advanced Trauma Life Support) in critical emergency situations in a life-like and safe environment;

 - Technology platform simulates the eight most common preventable lethal battlefield injuries and a more complex scenario like TRIAGE (Triage is the process of determining the priority of patients' treatments by the severity of their condition or likelihood of recovery with and without treatment.);

- Virtual reality grading and feedback built into the system gives insight into the user's performance effective—time spent on interventions, medical tools, and devices used;

- Benefit of visual, audio and tactile feedback from the environment;

- Monitor training improvement with statistical data;

- Simulate patient-doctor interaction.

Stage Of Development

Available for demonstration

Requested partner

Any type of stakeholder - early adopter, research and education institution, distributors of Medical Training Equipment,medical simulation centres, SMEs, etc.

Role of partner sought - customisation cooperation agreement to research and education institutions, medical simulation centres, SMEs and other stakeholders, participation in case studies using trauma simulator, verification the efficiency of the technology. 

Other collaboration options are possible.