Japanese VR medical device maker Jolly Good, together with the Nippon Medical School, a private university in Tokyo, has developed a cloud-based clinical education platform that uses VR. 

WHAT IT'S ABOUT

The education platform employs Jolly Good's Operation Cloud VR system that delivers a virtual view of live procedures through a 360-degree VR camera. The system is capable of automatically saving the live-streamed VR content in a cloud server for learning purposes.

WHY IT MATTERS

The pandemic disrupted medical education and medical schools were barred from conducting physical clinical practices to prevent the spread of the disease. 

The OPEcloud VR, according to a press statement, transforms any medical cases into VR content, enabling continued clinical training, as well as providing an immersive experience for learners.

Based on a survey conducted by the Japan Association for Medical Students Societies (Igakuren), medical students said that due to COVID-19, they missed out on physically examining patients; doing ward rounds; attending clinical practice outside the university hospital; and observing outpatients.

THE LARGER TREND

VR technology has been increasingly employed at hospitals globally to deliver an innovative approach to medical training. 

For instance in Australia, a VR training platform in critical care by startup Vantari VR has been deployed in four tertiary hospitals, where junior doctors and trainees are required to perform three to five sessions of procedures using the platform before they could perform actual procedures on patients. 

The Vantari system includes modules covering 90% of medical procedures as part of doctors' core training; these modules deliver steps that are based on recommended college guidelines.