Surgical residents at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital spent Tuesday morning placing central lines, IVs and even intubating patients repeatedly, but to the outside observer, they were operating on air, wearing VR goggles.
These residents were part of a study at the MedStar Health Simulation Training and Education Lab to see whether virtual reality is a conducive method to learning these basic procedures.
“They are learning how to do various procedures that are higher risk in a patient and practicing them in the virtual reality space and on the mannequins, but a lot in virtual reality, to make the transition from student to physician a safer and smoother transition,” said Patrick Jackson, the chief of general surgery at Georgetown and head of the Robert A. Altman Center for Surgical Education.
The residents grabbed iodine swabs off virtual surgical trays, applying the antiseptic before doing a virtual procedure. While joysticks and buttons are part of this training method rather than the physical feedback of the instruments, many of the residents found it useful because of the step-by-step instructions that came from their VR headsets.
“I feel like it was a really good tool to be able to help you just get used to the procedure without having to do it on a real person first,” said Dr. Benjamin Crane, a surgical resident.
Crane described it as the next step beyond a video resource, which he has found helpful during his studies.
“I think it’s a lot more interactive than a textbook,” Crane said. “You’re a lot more oriented to the steps of the procedure than you would if you were just reading it.”
“You don’t get the same physical feedback as you get in like a real patient or a mannequin, but still gets you experience with what the steps are, the proper kind of placement of things, what it should look like as you progress through the steps” added Dr. Noel Jesin, a surgical resident. “I think it’s a helpful way to kind of get familiar with the situation.”
Dr. Dhiraj Jagasia is an anesthesiologist and principal investigator of the study, comparing the virtual procedures to traditional mannequin practice.
“You think about the aviation industry, you see pilots, right? How many hours do they have to log in a simulation lab before they can actually fly a plane?” Jagasia said.
Jagasia said there are correlation studies between adverse patient outcomes and the number of times a physician has practiced the procedure. They hope this added practice will improve patient safety in the future.
These VR headsets also have the ability to simulate problems that might arise during a procedure to give residents and medical students practice at navigating potential issues.
And you may think that you don’t want your doctor to play with what seems like video games too much, but Jackson disagreed, adding most surgeons will need to get comfortable with a joystick as more and more robots are assisting in surgeries.
“None of the robots that we currently use are autonomous,” Jackson said. “They are all guided by the specific surgeon who is doing that procedure.”
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