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Augmented Reality for Guideline Presentation in Medicine: Randomized Crossover Simulation Trial for Technically
Andreas Follmann1, Alexander Ruhl1, Michael Gösch2
1Department of Anesthesiology, Faculty of Medicine, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen University, Aachen, Germany.
JMIR Mhealth and Uhealth
|October 18, 2021
Summary
Tablet PCs enabled faster triage decisions compared to smart glasses in a simulated mass casualty incident. Accuracy was similar, suggesting augmented reality can be useful, especially when hands-free operation is needed.
Area of Science:
- Medical Informatics
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Emergency Medicine
Background:
- Medical guidelines are crucial for diagnostics and therapy.
- Mobile devices can present complex clinical decision trees.
- Triage in mass casualty incidents exemplifies time-critical decision-making.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate augmented reality (AR) for presenting medical guidelines.
- To compare AR (smart glasses) with tablet PCs for guideline presentation.
- To assess decision time and accuracy in a simulated triage scenario.
Main Methods:
- A randomized controlled crossover study was conducted.
- An Android app presented a triage algorithm on smart glasses and a tablet PC.
- Forty volunteers performed simulated triage on 30 patient descriptions using both devices.
Main Results:
- Tablet PCs resulted in significantly faster triage times (median 12.8s) than smart glasses (median 17.5s).
- The time difference decreased with subsequent assessments, indicating user adaptation to smart glasses.
- No significant difference in decision accuracy was observed between the tablet PC and smart glasses.
Conclusions:
- Both tablet PCs and AR (smart glasses) effectively presented guidelines with good results.
- Smart glasses required more time initially due to complexity but improved with practice.
- AR offers potential benefits for clinical management, particularly in non-time-critical situations requiring hands-free interaction.
