Virtual Reality Enhances Surgical Education

Surgical training is a complicated process, with educators wanting to encourage their trainees to perform certain activities and learn, but understanding that it is not always possible when taking in to account the beneficence of the patient.

Image retrieved from Health Professional Radio website

However, there is one advancement in oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMS) education that only has beneficial results to the learning program, that is virtual reality. In modern day, the learning enhancement of trainees has many burdens, whether it is the focus of    patients’ safety continuously increasing, regulations or government funding, the only way to improve training is finding a more innovative way to conduct it. That is what virtual reality is. Likewise, trainees nowadays express the need for more hands-on learning to be more engaged in the process and require information immediately, whether it is research or feedback. In other words, the modern trainee likes to have busywork, and constantly wants to learn more in an engaged manner instead of in a typical classroom setting. Virtual reality simulation solves these issues.

Simulations give trainees the experience of hands on busywork, and creates an environment where learning can be done via exploration, and a negative result does not exist since the practice is being done in the simulation and not risking the lives of patients. Simulation is also another great resource for experience. By using virtual reality, any real-life situation, process or structure can be recreated for the trainee to observe and ask the made-up patient questions to understand the diagnosis, as well as perform the necessary treatment. Afterwards, the scenario is assessed by the educator and feedback is distributed. This sounds fantastic; understandably, however the extraordinary part is that the trainee can repeat the same scenario as many times as needed to improve their efficiency, and considering the wide range of scenarios to create, there is no flaw to having virtual reality as a learning tool.

Simulation has always been a part of the learning process when it comes to surgical training, such as students using cadavers. This provides the most real life experience for medical and dental students to practice on, however, thankfully, there is not an endless supply of them. Another simulation used in dentistry is the phantom head, which also provides helpful learning experiences. However, the many ways that dental or medical students are taught do not provide as much of a real-life experience as virtual reality does.

“With this innovative education, the trainees can gain experience and proper exposure to real life situations while maintaining the safety of patients, limiting government funding in the long run and avoiding regulatory burdens.”

All in all, virtual reality is a way for students, medical trainees in particular, to advance in their training and profession. The real-world experiences that are produced via this simulator give students better efficiency and quality of work while also improving their response time in emergencies. The feedback is instant, which is what a lot of modern day students require, and the hands-on learning is continuously available.  

The below video is an interview with Dr. Jack Pottle who founded Oxford Medical Simulation, a virtual reality training technology that enhances simulation education for medical students worldwide.

Source:

Busaidy, K. 2019. Advances in Surgical Training Using Simulation. Oral And Maxillofacial Surgery Clinics Of North America, 31(4), 621-626. doi: 10.1016/j.coms.2019.07.006