Research Essay on Technology in Healthcare Field

My presentation is on how virtual reality is used in the various sectors of the healthcare industry, i.e. to assist in physical rehabilitation, as part of a treatment program, or to help train medical personnel. I find this topic engaging, as I was not aware of virtual reality being frequently used in this field, alongside or instead of traditional medical practices.

Virtual reality is an entirely immersive experience, although the participant is aware that they are involved in a simulation, they can still find themselves extremely engrossed in this new reality. VR intends to either mimic our reality in differing scenarios or to project a representation of a fictional reality, i.e. in a mythical world. This makes virtual reality an effective tool for healthcare workers as they can seemingly project patients into different simulations of reality, according to their diagnosis.

Although, virtual reality is often considered a new advancement in healthcare sectors, in actuality its usage spans back to 1965, when Robert Mann created the first virtual system in medicine. He intended to facilitate a new training environment for orthopedics. Other practitioners expanded his creation in the late 80s and 90s to apply it to a range of hands-on procedures.

These are some examples of how virtual reality is used in the healthcare industry

• They include training medical students in certain surgical procedures
• Providing autist patients with different simulations of social situations – to help them feel comfortable
• It can help with anxiety disorders or phobias, as it makes the patient confront their stresses or fears that they cannot confront in reality.
• It can help people deal with bereavement by allowing them to see loved ones that have passed away.

Virtual reality has offered new learning opportunities and experiences for medical students who aspire to successfully navigate through challenging operations.

The VR experience uses gaming software to train and assess students, to improve patient outcomes.

This is achieved through access to the VR software and the equipment of a headset with touch controllers.

By using VR for teaching, senior medical personnel are giving students a resource that can allow them to ‘rehearse and tailor new skills in an entirely realistic environment’ with no risk. These skills can then be assessed by the teacher from a monitor connected to the headset.

On average up to 30% of graduating general surgery residents cannot independently operate. A student should perform a procedure at least 50 to 100 times to achieve proficient results, due to the complexity of the procedures.

Students can also view live-streamed VR surgeries performed by surgeons in specialist fields and broadcast to a global audience.

This is a 27-second promotional video from a company called OSSO VR. They specialize in creating VR experiences that mimic real surgeries. To quote “ their mission is to improve patient outcome, increase the adoption of higher-value medical technologies and democratize access to surgical education around the globe”

Jaron Lanier, a virtual realist and pioneer in his field, was an instigator in the creation of 3D immersive realities. He described VR as not only “a new thing that would be like a conversation, but also like a waking state of intentional dreaming”. Although, in actual fact, I believe that VR defies the concept of “dreaming”, due to the users' awareness and ability to change the reality that they are submerged in.

The user’s awareness within the VR surgery experience would be heightened as they are aware that their perspective is being viewed on monitors that are set up to view the actions and progress of the student within the simulation. This assumingly adds additional pressure.

As student's VR experience is monitored and thus being watched without seeing the viewer, it is apparent that their behavior would change. This is reflective of Michel Foucault’s theory of Panopticism, based on ‘the panopticon’, a form of prison popularised by Jeremy Benham. In essence, the theory looked at how the construction of the panopticon allowed the guards to see the prisoners without themselves being seen. This allowed the guards to highlight their power and the prisons to consciously alter their behavior, as they didn’t know when they were being watched.

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The act of the student’s virtual experience being viewed without them seeing the viewer is much like the experiences of the panopticon prisoners. However, the student’s behavior would change based on wanting to impress their teacher or probably the stress induced by the situation. Whereas the prisoner’s change of behavior was motivated by a subconscious fear. An advantage of the students being watched is that they can virtually communicate their existing knowledge and skills.

Traditional methods of treating anxiety and phobias are now being used alongside immersive technology like Virtual reality.

This form of VR ‘submerges patients into an alternative world they can interact with, helping them confront perceived problems and challenges

This VR treatment allows patients to work through their stresses/fears in stages and works as a more effective way of tackling certain psychological issues.

With this technology, patients will be able to communicate where their anxiety lies. In this digital culture, patients might feel more comfortable expressing themselves through technology, instead of strictly verbal communication.

VR can be helpful when treating:

• A fear of flying
• Social anxiety – fear of interacting with large groups
• Exam anxiety
• Public speaking anxiety
• A fear of spiders
• Or other general phobias

This slide shows the original video of Stanford neurobiologists exploring responses to stress, anxiety, or fear through virtual reality. I intend to only show 20 seconds of this 5-minute clip, but the original video is on the slide if you would like to view it more.

The International Society for Presence Research is an organization that supports academic research regarding virtual environments. They hope to expand the use of VR to medical treatments at home, as care providers can see the value in this virtual reality therapy.

The video below of the XR health VR system was promoted by the ISPR, as an example of an at-home VR system that can still be monitored by medical personnel and communicate your results back to them. Due to my limited time, I will only show 20 seconds of the video, as I believe it to be relevant.

Henry Jenkins, a media scholar and writer of the acclaimed book ‘Convergence Culture, stated that “once a medium establishes itself as satisfying some core human demand, it continues to function within the larger system of communication options”

This quote reflects how digital culture is shaping how the healthcare industry approaches training and treatments. The ‘demand’ that Jenkins describes is evident in the continued usage of VR, alongside traditional treatments in the industry

He also comments on a corporation's power over individual consumers, due to factors like expense as some people have “greater abilities to participate in this emerging culture than others”. Despite, this being written in 2006, this statement is still very relevant today. Participants like medical students are only able to use VR software like the OSSO VR if it is purchased by their medical facility or learning institution for £400. Similarly, healthcare sectors or patients have to rent VR sets for at-home use.

Some positive and negative factors of using Virtual Reality software and equipment in healthcare sectors include:

• It creates a risk-free environment for medical students to practice surgical skills
• It allows patients to tackle stress/fear in a monitored simulation
• Medical professionals and teachers can see what the patient or student is struggling with
• Patients can communicate physically how they respond to situations, rather than verbally communicating their issue.

Negatives include :

• VR not always being able to replicate real-life situations and the human factor that changes in reality
• The expense
• The idea that participant prefer this form of reality over their own, i.e. when VR is used for bereavement or escapism

Bibliography

Books

1. Georgios Tsoulfas (2018). Medical and Surgical Education: Past, Present and Future. Croatia: InTech. p78-p82.
2. Jenkin, H. (2006). Convergence Culture. New York and London: New York University Press. p3 -p16
3. Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. London, France: Vintage Books. Part 4.

Websites

1. Garbade, Dr. M. (2018). Amazing uses of Virtual Reality. Available: https://readwrite.com/2018/11/08/10-amazing-uses-of-virtual-reality/. Last accessed 18th Mar 2020.
2. Maccarone, M.Garner, O. (2020). Virtual Reality: A new reality for learning and development training. Available: https://www.med-technews.com/features/virtual-reality-a-new-reality-for-learning-and-development-t/. Last accessed 19th Mar 2020.
3. Barad, J. (2019). Virtual and augmented reality can save lives by improving surgeons’ training. Available: https://www.statnews.com/2019/08/16/virtual-reality-improve-surgeon-training/. Last accessed 19th Mar 2020.
4. Taylor, J. (2018). Virtual reality and the changing face of surgery. Available: https://www.standard.co.uk/futurelondon/health/virtual-reality-in-surgery-a3998166.html. Last accessed 20th Mar 2020.
5. Grigorovsky, C. (2018). New virtual reality therapy proves successful in treating anxiety. Available: https://www.healtheuropa.eu/virtual-reality-therapy-anxiety/85906/. Last accessed 21st Mar 2020.
6. International Society for Presence Research. (2020). New U.S. clinics use telehealth to bring VR treatments to the patient’s home. Available: https://ispr.info/2020/02/24/new-u-s-clinics-use-telehealth-to-bring-vr-treatments-to-the-patients-home/. Last accessed 23rd Mar 2020.
7. XR Health. (2019). XRHealth - uses VR as a Medical Device. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UHtOtvrTck. Last accessed 23rd Mar 2020.
8. Barad, J. (2016). OSSO VR - Results Matter. Available: https://ossovr.com/. Last accessed 24th Mar 2020.
9. KinoLibrary. (1990). Jaron Lanier Presents VPL Virtual Reality Glove. Available: http://kinolibrary.com/#/. Last accessed 5th April 2019.
10. Stanford Medicine. (2017). Stanford neurobiologists use VR to explore responses to stress, anxiety, and fear. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOuw6gMj1d0. Last accessed 22nd Mar 2020.