Immersive collaborative virtual reality for case-based graduate student teaching in thoracic surgery: A piloting...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Virtual Reality
• Surgical Training

Background:

• Traditional medical education methods are established.
• Virtual reality (VR) applications enhance spatial understanding due to their immersive nature.
• This study focuses on a novel system for collaborative, case-based VR teaching using real-time computed tomography (CT) data.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and pilot test a collaborative, case-based VR teaching system for graduate medical students.
• To evaluate the effectiveness and acceptance of VR in thoracic surgery education.
• To assess the potential of VR to supplement or replace traditional teaching methods.

Main Methods:

• A system was configured for real-time volume rendered CT data in a collaborative, multiuser VR environment.
• A thoracic surgery VR course was integrated into the graduate surgical curriculum.
• Student feedback was collected via questionnaires to evaluate the VR course.

Main Results:

• Seventy students participated; 77.14% found the system intuitive, with minimal cyber sickness (5.71%).
• 98.57% agreed VR improved anatomical understanding compared to traditional methods; 88.57% found learning more effective.
• Students reported high engagement (97.14% joy) and supported VR integration into preclinical (81.43%) and clinical teaching (94.29%).

Conclusions:

• Collaborative, real-time VR teaching is technically feasible and well-accepted in graduate medical education.
• There is strong student support for increased VR integration in surgical curricula.
• Further studies are planned to objectively evaluate the impact of VR in expanded educational settings.