Columbus, OH,
20
March
2017
|
15:00 PM
Europe/Amsterdam

Columbus Dispatch: Virtual reality aids medical trauma training

Residents at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center are now getting to experience the intensity of the trauma bay before stepping into the situation first-hand.

Recently, two residents spent part of their orientation for their trauma rotation wearing virtual reality goggles that took them right into a trauma situation. They were able to see 360 degree video and hear 360 degree audio of what happens when doctors, nurses and other team members are tending to a trauma patient.

Columbus Dispatch medical reporter JoAnne Viviano was at Grant to observe the training.

“It's a great experience," Arishi Abdulaziz, MD, a surgery resident at University of Toledo Medical Center, told the Dispatch. "It is as if you are in trauma, really. Like 100 percent, you are in trauma."

Jesse Nichols, DO, an emergency medicine resident at Adena Regional Medical Center, agreed that the scenario was very lifelike.

"I felt like I needed to reach out and help the patient," he told the Dispatch. "You're right there."

The scenarios the residents observed were filmed last summer during an evening at Grant. You can read more about the actual filming of the videos by clicking here. Ohio University is leading the program through their Immersive Media Initiative. They are also using the virtual reality videos with medical students in Athens.

"The main thrust of the Immersive Media Initiative is to use virtual reality as an educational platform for graduate and undergraduate students," Eric Williams, an associate professor in the Ohio University School of Media Arts & Studies, told the Dispatch. "Students not only learn technology in the classroom, but they're able to then go out and work on real-world projects."

This story appeared on the front page of the Columbus Dispatch. To read the story in its entirety, click on the image of the newspaper.