The world as we know it has come to an end – the pandemic of COVID-19 changes our life every minute of every day. But these changes do not necessarily have to be bad.
COVID-19 is a recently discovered disease, which has been spreading so fast, that the World Health Organization has declared it a pandemic – the deadliest and the most rapidly spreading illness for the last hundred years. The good news is that most people will not even notice the ongoing disease, the bad one, on the other hand, is that the severe cases of the virus may lead to a fatal outcome.
The heaviest burden fell on the shoulders of the medical staff – they need not only to apply all available knowledge but also to learn new things in the process. And modern technology is here to help – virtual reality simulations in healthcare education is a time-saving and effective way to prepare doctors and nurses to combat COVID-19. We have collected an overview of the latest VR/AR solutions, which are helping in the fight against the pandemic.
1. Health Scholars Help Improve Heart Disease Management
Health Scholars have donated 14,000 Seats of ACLS Desktop Simulation Training to the physicians as they’ll need to acquire or re-acquire key clinical skills related to emergencies that require immediate action – such as encountering an unstable dysrhythmia or a code event. Screen-based ACLS simulation training helps clinicians to manage cardiac arrest and non-cardiac arrest scenarios, identify different cardiac waveforms and direct to the team members. The correct and consistent sequence of actions in acute situations may help save hundreds and thousands of lives. And everything thanks to VR training.
2. Simbionix U/S Mentor Provides Free Ultrasound Course
As COVID-19 is known to severely affect lungs, it’s crucial to carefully monitor a condition for the prevention of lung failure. There are several ways of controlling the evolution of the disease, such as chest radiography or CT scanning, but lung ultrasound is considered an easy, safe and fast alternative. Training front line practitioners to quickly obtain lung ultrasound experiences can be critical for the success of COVID-19 management. This is why Simbionix U/S Mentor has provided clinicians with its online 3D training course for free use around the world. The U/S Mentor is a high-end medical simulator for the training of ultrasound-related examinations and interventions, providing medical care specialists with an opportunity to acquire and improve their sonography-related skills on a variety of virtual patients.
3. 17.000 Free Seats from Oxford Medical Simulation To Improve Medical Skills
One of the most prominent problems in treating COVID-19 is not only the absence of knowledge about the disease itself but also the shortage of sufficient medical staff. That’s why the most affected by COVID-19 countries have decided to bring in badly-needed additional staffers to provide patient care among those who have already retired. To help them quickly gain the ability to boost and increase their patient care skills to be able to help in medical facilities, Oxford Medical Simulation has offered its VR training course to every physician for free. The OMS simulation systems provide animated, web-based patient training scenarios for doctors, nurses, and teams through the use of a laptop or desktop computer using a display screen and/or a VR headset for a fully-immersive experience. Participants receive a preloaded patient care scenario using which they have to diagnose a problem obtaining a patient history, performing a physical checkup, doing investigative work, and consulting with colleagues. 17.000 doctors and nurses have signed for their virtual reality COVID-19 training and are ready to help those in need.
4. Rokid AR-Glasses and Realwear Help Measure Temperature and Keep Social Distance
Global pandemic is the time modern technologies show their worth and VR/AR is proving its high effectiveness. As not only healthcare and medical staff have been under attack, but a lot of frontline workers from supermarkets to airports are there for us to help battle the contagion. Fortunately, there is a way to measure body temperature with a safe distance of about 2 meters (6.6 feet) while avoiding physical contact. Rokid has just released a newly developed AR glasses with infrared thermal imaging, offering a helping hand to various communities in times of need. The module can quickly perform the task with great accuracy in as fast as 0.5 second, outperforming the infrared thermometer 2-3 seconds measuring time. Compared to the traditional measurement methods, Rokid Glass could greatly improve the efficiency and safety of frontline work.
RealWear China has also embarked on a fight with COVID-19 by donating more than 20 HMT-1s to the hospitals in China and the USA. HMT-1 is an augmented reality technology for remote support, helping medical staff avoid or reduce contact with the red zone patients without interruption of the treatment process. The solution allows for approved clinicians to receive faster zero-contact temperature screening, self-guided training, and digital workflow, remote video support for diagnosing and managing patients affected by the disease. Only one member of the clinical staff is needed to contact the patient, while the others may stay in the green zone, playing the mentor role, talking with the patient and fellow team members via RealWear’s hands-free system. This will reduce exposure to cross-infection and cut down on the depletion of protective gear and equipment.
Global pandemic is the time modern technologies show their worth and VR/AR is proving its high effectiveness.
Sensorama does not remain aloof from the global problem. We are about to release the cross-platform medical simulator with real-life clinical scenarios, where medical staff requires making diagnostic and therapeutic decisions based on anamnesis, physical examination, and virtual patient analysis. Knowledge systems and analytics are present. We strongly believe that this solution can be an effective learning tool for both medical students and workers.
As you may know, in the Chinese language, the word “crisis” is composed of two characters, one representing danger and the other, opportunity. If you see how Sensorama can help fight the global crisis, let us know, as we are ready to unite to help the world together in this troubled time.
