Perspective or Spectacle? Teaching thoracic aortic anatomy in a mixed reality assisted educational approach- a two-armed randomized pilot study

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Understanding complex vascular anatomy is crucial for medical students, particularly in surgery.
• Two-dimensional visualizations of intricate vascular structures can pose challenges for learning.
• Mixed Reality (MxR) offers immersive visualization potential for anatomical education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of using MxR-assisted education in undergraduate vascular surgery.
• To compare an MxR-based teaching intervention against CT-based material for learning thoracic aorta morphology.
• To evaluate learning success, diagnostic skills, motivation, usability, and workload.

Main Methods:

• Prospective randomized controlled trial involving 120 thoracic aortic visualizations.
• Twelve students were randomized into two groups: MxR-based intervention or CT-based intervention.
• Outcomes included learning success, diagnostic skills, motivation, system usability, and workload.

Main Results:

• Learning success showed a mean improvement of 1.17 points (out of 10).
• Diagnostic skills were comparable between the CT-group (58.25 ± 7.86) and MxR-group (58.5 ± 6.60).
• 11 out of 12 participants found MxR facilitated learning; system usability was rated positively with low workload.

Conclusions:

• MxR systems represent a valuable adjunct for vascular surgery education.
• Further research with larger cohorts is needed to validate MxR's efficacy.
• MxR holds significant potential for acquiring practical surgical skills.