December 10, 2021 – GigXR, a provider of extended reality (XR) solutions for instructor-led teaching and training, and the University of Michigan, a public research institution with one of the top hospitals in the United States, have recently announced a partnership to develop the XR Procedure Training Suite, a training application that uses hyper-realistic holographic patients and mixed reality (MR) visual cues to develop manual and practical skills in preclinical education.
According to GigXR, the XR Procedure Training Suite fully immerses students in hyper-realistic clinical scenarios that are safe-to-fail and closely mimics the experience they’d have in a real-world clinical environment. Built to augment task trainers as well as help students and trainees learn a specific procedure before they start practicing the tactile muscle memory, the new holographic training suite can be used with or without a manikin to help guide students through common procedures, to navigate complications and master their manual skills for real-life patient encounters.
“Traditional simulation methods require students to work with lab equipment, such as manikins and task trainers, that is increasingly difficult to access and apply at scale,” said Dr. Mark Cohen, a Professor of Surgery, Pharmacology and Biomedical Engineering at Michigan Medicine, the academical medical center of the University of Michigan. “Mixed reality places the holographic patient right in front of the learner to visualize critical techniques while still maintaining the collaborative, hands-on experience of standing around the patient with other learners. Being able to safely practice skills and techniques outside of a simulation lab, or in any environment, with high-fidelity, true-to-life XR patients brings tremendous value that could accelerate learner readiness and preparedness for the clinic.”
GigXR states that the XR Procedure Training Suite offers an alternative to manikins, which can be costly and time consuming to set up, by allowing for the creation of life-like MR learning scenarios that are easy to access and deploy. Learners using the suite can observe a wide variety of patient presentations and train in developing diagnostic skills for various pathologies, such as taking vitals, listening to a patient’s lungs, comparing X-rays or CT scans and practicing ultrasound. Instructors can also instantly introduce complications to scenarios, such as deteriorating vital signs, disease progression, procedural complications and more.
“Our goal and impact for creating the XR Procedure Training Suite is not just in accelerating skills development, but in empowering instructors to provide training that results in more efficient and safer patient care that ultimately would lead to improved patient outcomes,” added Cohen.
Delivered through GigXR’s Immersive Learning Platform, the XR Procedure Training Suite will serve as an on-demand instructor-led training tool for students, no matter where they are located, and will be accessible on Microsoft’s HoloLens, iOS and Android devices. Instructors will be able to launch lessons quickly, use one-tap QR codes for student logins and repurpose lesson plans with in-lesson notes or comments.
GigXR and University of Michigan plan to launch the XR Procedure Training Suite by mid-2022. For more information about GigXR and its immersive learning products, some of which use volumetric video capture and hyper-realistic 3D models to create safe-to-fail environments for students, please visit the company’s website.
Image credit: GigXR
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Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.