Virtual reality enhancing medical education and practice: Brief communication

Shabbir Syed Abdul; Umashankar Upadhyay; Daniel Salcedo; Che-Wei Lin

doi:10.1177/20552076221143948

Virtual reality enhancing medical education and practice: Brief communication

Digit Health. 2022 Dec 18:8:20552076221143948. doi: 10.1177/20552076221143948. eCollection 2022 Jan-Dec.

Authors

Shabbir Syed Abdul^{1

2

3}, Umashankar Upadhyay^{1

2

4}, Daniel Salcedo⁵, Che-Wei Lin^{6

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Graduate Institute of Biomedical Informatics, College of Medical Science and Technology, Taipei Medical University, Taipei.
² International Center for Health Information Technology, College of Medical Science and Technology, Taipei Medical University, Taipei.
³ School of Gerontology and Long-term Care, College of Nursing, Taipei Medical University, Taipei.
⁴ Faculty of Applied Sciences and Biotechnology, Shoolini University of Biotechnology and Management Sciences, Solan, Himachal Pradesh, India.
⁵ Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA.
⁶ Department of Education and Humanities in Medicine, School of Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei.
⁷ Department of Emergency, Taipei Medical University-Shuang Ho Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
⁸ Center for Education in Medical Simulation, Taipei Medical University, Taipei City, Taiwan.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a major cause of rapid globalization and digitization of educational institutions, including medical education. The adaptation to digital technologies is the purpose of best education and training practices in the development of the academic medical curriculum. Virtual reality (VR) is embraced by the 3D environment and network resources which allow the expansion of VR from the entertainment industry to the education industry. This brief communication explains our understanding and the challenges in adopting VR technologies for medical training at an academic medical center. Advancement in VR technology assists medical institutes to strategize for the further development of medical training and education. There is a timely need for persistence to make the VR content accessible widely and open source. There is an urgent need for collaboration of medical institutes and technology industries on the development of education-related VR content and simulations.

Keywords: Medical education; healthcare training; medical simulations; virtual reality.