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Teaching binocular indirect ophthalmoscopy to novice residents using an augmented reality simulator
Amandeep S Rai1, Amrit S Rai1, Emmanouil Mavrikakis1
1Department of Ophthalmology & Vision Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.
Objective:
To compare the traditional teaching approach of binocular indirect ophthalmoscopy (BIO) to the EyeSI augmented reality (AR) BIO simulator.
Design:
Prospective randomized control trial.
Participants:
28 post-graduate year one (PGY1) ophthalmology residents.
Methods:
Residents were recruited at the 2012 Toronto Ophthalmology Residents Introductory Course (TORIC). 15 were randomized to conventional teaching (Group 1), and 13 to augmented reality simulator training (Group 2). 3 vitreoretinal fellows were enrolled to serve as experts. Evaluations were completed on the simulator, with 3 tasks, and outcome measures were total raw score, total time elapsed, and performance.
Results:
Following conventional training, Group 1 residents were outperformed by vitreoretinal fellows with respect to all 3 outcome measures. Following AR training, Group 2 residents demonstrated superior total scores and performance compared to Group 1 residents. Once the Group 1 residents also completed the AR BIO training, there was a significant improvement compared to their baseline scores, and were now on par with Group 2 residents.
Conclusions:
This study provides construct validity for the EyeSI AR BIO simulator and demonstrates that it may be superior to conventional BIO teaching for novice ophthalmology residents.
