A ‘virtual hospital’ for Wales that can help train tomorrow’s medical practitioners is being developed by a Cardiff University partnership.
The 19-month collaboration aims to create a multi-disciplinary, and cross speciality, undergraduate and postgraduate online virtual environment that will showcase Wales as an exemplar of medical education.
The project aims to create ‘virtual’ clinical placements for student healthcare practitioners, applying textbook knowledge to real-life patients and scenarios, whilst bypassing the need for social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Enabled through an online virtual environment (Wales’ Virtual Hospital), clinicians will be able to create three types of learning experience framed around a patient presentation:
- A 360° still environment (with embedded content to create an eLearning package)
- A 360° video environment (with game play in both branching and non-branching scenarios)
- Fully immersive 360°/3D environment (with interactive online simulation)
Overview and demo
Video giving an overview of the virtual hospital.
Funded by Accelerate, the project involves Virtual Reality (VR) specialists Virtus Tech, who will provide a DIGI tour platform, and a range of health and education organisations: Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, South Wales Major Trauma Network, Health Education and Improvement Wales and the Assistive Technologies Innovation Centre (University of Wales Trinity St David).
Cardiff University is providing academic expertise to assess the teaching effectiveness of the VR environment in addition to delivering project management through the Clinical Innovation Accelerator.
The Assistive Technologies Innovation Centre (ATiC), University of Wales Trinity Saint David will undertake an evaluation of effectiveness and user experience.
Collaboration benefits include:
- The development of a unique and marketable fully immersive
- 360-degree 3D virtual learning environment
- A dedicated clinical teaching aid and evaluation tool providing specialist modules and bespoke provision
- A single portal for ensuring continuity across virtual clinical teaching
- Opportunities for further collaboration and joint case studies between project partners.