I once studied medicine. This study comprised the need to learn tons of information about the anatomy and physiology of the human body. For example, for learning the anatomy of the brain, you have to orient yourself in the 3-dimensional situation of the brain to understand all structures, their connections, and their functions.
At that time, I just had books and a simple 3-dimensional paper model of the brain. AR technology would have tremendiously supported my learning. I would have been able to "fly" into the brain, look around, identify certain structures, see the function of each structure etc.
There was a video in this week's OER on how to use AR in medical education (https://youtu.be/dWf7oEwZKbs) - indeed, I would have loved to have this during my study!
Elske
I have seen some experiments with AR in healthcare at the institution where I work, and they are doing something a little different I think. They are trying to recreate the traditional dummy that doctors and nurses and work on so that it looks like someone, i.e. their expressions react as the nurse or doctor says or performs a procedure. For example, the dummy may smile if comforting words are said, or wince in pain if too much pressure is applied during a procedure. The thought process is that often some people are skills are missed during traditional education, that they are trying to establish with AR.
This seems like an important point when we think about when we should employ a technology solution to improve learning. I recently attended a AR/VR conference where some had spent a lot of money recreating a model of a pelvis in AR, but the apart from being a cool thing to have a go at it was in fact more difficult to use than picking up the model of the pelvis and looking at it. Technology has to drive at something that haven’t been able to do without it. The example of the medical dummy is a good one because the medical dummy is tried and trusted tool to teach students how to work with a patient, but it lacks the personal interaction that is requisite part of actual medical practice. This attempted solution really strikes at something that is currently impossible to reproduce.
I agree with you Faeyza. AR certainly does have a lot of potential in the medical field. One of the things your post reminded me of was during the week on MOOC, I saw a course on First Aid on Future Learn. At the time, it made me wonder how such a course conducted online could fully equip one with the necessary skills, particularly the practical hands-on skills. Perhaps AR could possibly enable such courses to be conducted remotely and equip people with both theoretical and practical skills.
Yes, AR seems to have many applications and benefits in the field of medicine. I remember creating first-aid e-Learning courses for Emirates airline. They had a dummy with all the body parts and they wanted us to create animations to train their staff on how heart functions, how to perform CPR and so on. As videos were not common at that time and there were bandwidth limitations, we spent quite a bit of time working on images and creating animations in Adobe Flash. Today videos have replaced those kinds of animations. Here is video I found on YouTube. I think the next evolution would be to use augmented reality in such cases.
Hi Elske, interesting points! When I first heard about AR, Medicine was the subject that I think will benefit most from this invention. It allows medical students to see the actual size and proportion of the human body. They don't have to try and visualize this from the pictures presented in a textbook or a video shown on a computer. The human body can be physically in front of them for them to interact with. Something that probably requires hours of explanation is now simplified because the student can see it in context. Below is a quick video describing how augmented reality is being used in Medicine.
Hi Eva and Elske,
Some really good ideas related to the health field. My mother was a nurse and one of the main problems she would deal with was finding veins in patients. If she could have used AccuVein her job would have been so much easier. Nurses can find veins easier with augmented reality. AccuVein is using AR technology to make both nurses’ and patients’ lives easier. I do believe that 40% of IVs (intravenous injections) miss the vein on the first stick, with the numbers getting worse for children and the elderly. AccuVein uses augmented reality by using a handheld scanner that projects over skin and shows nurses and doctors where veins are in the patients’ bodies. This technology has been used on more than 10 million patients, making finding a vein on the first stick 3.5x more likely. It is in my opinion that these technologies could assist healthcare professionals and extend their skills.
Hi Elske,
Great point about the anatomy and physiology. You reminded me so much of trying to visualize all the structure and spatial planes and how it all fit together. We had the plastic models and my favourite an A&P colouring book. I've started using some of this with my students -BioDigital Human (free version)which goes down to the microscopic level. Just a few weeks ago they announced that they will be coming out with an AR version (also a VR), then are working on a hologram version in the future, where you'll really be able to fly or walk through the human anatomy.