A virtual emergency and how to avoid one Thursday, 08 June 2017

News article written by Corbett Communications. The statements made or opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Engineers Australia.

Virtual reality (VR), while ‘born’ some years ago, has now made its way into the delivery room via the University of Newcastle’s (UON) School of Nursing & Midwifery. The school has collaborated with the uni’s Innovation Team to come up with a VR delivery room to provide midwifery students with a virtual emergency neonatal resuscitation scene.

Offering students a VR experience of a common but critical practice was key, UON co-project leader Jessica Williams said, given that 15% of babies born in Australia and New Zealand require some form of resuscitation.

The program has been designed to bridge the gap between an educational setting to a real-world emergency room. The technology runs via an app developed for PC, iOS and Android.

As part of a randomised trial, 18 Samsung Gear VR headsets will be available to second-year midwifery students at UON’s Callaghan and Port Macquarie campuses. The trial will compare students who opt-in for the VR simulation as part of their learning to those without access to ascertain the technology’s benefits.

Hologram for health

UON’s Innovation Team also has another project on the go with a new augmented reality (AR) resource designed to assist with anatomy and physiology education. For this, a HoloLens headset is used that projects a hologram into the user’s surroundings.

The team has developed a gender –changeable human form with interactive layers which expose the different functions of the human body. And there are plans to update the figure to depict a pregnant woman for students to gain a full understanding of gestation and the impact of the baby’s position prior to birth, according to UON Innovation Manager, Craig Williams.

Williams, who has a Bachelor of Engineering, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from UNSW, said the aim was to identify challenges in teaching and learning where innovative technologies can provide a new perspective and a safe, repeatable learning experience.

“The benefit of an educator being able to utilise VR and AR to teach these complex areas of study is that there is a clear working depiction of the subject right before their eyes, which can be projected and shared with a classroom,” he said.

“Health resources are often a textbook picture, which can lack detail, or a real-life subject, which involves the consent of a third-party. Virtual and augmented simulation combats this with the ability to provide ease of access with an incredible level of complexity and detail.”

Author: Desi Corbett

Image: The University of Newcastle has developed a VR neonatal emergency resuscitation program. Source: UON.