Artificial intelligence-enhanced virtual reality for pathology education

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Virtual Reality
• Pathology

Background:

• Active learning pedagogies enhance student engagement and information retention over passive learning.
• Extended Reality (XR) technologies like VR, AR, and MR show potential for immersive learning but are underexplored in pathology.
• Pathology education requires linking microscopic findings with clinical and radiographic data, benefiting from spatial visualization.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore an innovative virtual reality (VR) room architecture for pathology education.
• To provide an immersive and vivid learning environment for pathology residents and dental/medical students.
• To address the gap in applying XR technologies in pathology training.

Main Methods:

• Development of an innovative VR room architecture.
• Tailoring the immersive environment for specific learner groups (first-year pathology residents, predoctoral dental and medical students).

Main Results:

• The VR room architecture provides a vivid and immersive learning environment.
• Potential to enhance engagement and knowledge retention in pathology education.

Conclusions:

• VR offers a promising solution to improve visualization and integration of multi-dimensional disease facets in pathology.
• The developed VR architecture can enhance the learning experience for future medical professionals.