Toledo has a long history of being on the cutting edge of virtual reality technology.
The 1992 science fiction film The Lawnmower Man, directed by Toledo native Brett Leonard, broke new ground for virtual reality special effects. Today virtual reality technology is being utilized for medical treatments and research, with Toledo again leading the way.
Virtual reality is gaining momentum as a means to treat PTSD, phobias, and social anxiety. According to an article in the medical publication Very Well Mind written by University of Toledo professor Matthew Tull, virtual reality has shown promise in treating combat veterans who are emotionally scarred by warfare.
“In virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET), an individual is immersed in a computer-generated virtual environment, either through the use of a head-mounted display device or entry into a computer-automated room where images are present all around. This environment can be programmed to help the person directly confront feared situations or locations that may not be safe to encounter in real life,” wrote Mr. Tull. “There is some evidence which shows that VRET may be useful for treating several different anxiety disorders and anxiety-related problems.”
Teaching tool
By definition, virtual reality is a computer-generated 3D environment. It usually involves near-eye screens or goggles and relies on pose tracking, where the user gets a sense of actually moving in relation to the images being seen.
The University of Toledo’s Lloyd A. Jacobs Interprofessional Immersive Simulation Center is where some of the most groundbreaking medical virtual reality research in the nation is taking place.
Cristina Alvarado has been the director of the IISC for five years, but has worked in healthcare simulation for 15 years.
“[Since] this building was built in 2014, what was defined as virtual reality has completely changed,” said Ms. Alvarado. “From a virtual reality perspective, we were early pioneers in incorporating this modality and trying to compliment it with curriculum, but not just for medical students. How can this benefit our nursing students, our respiratory therapy students, and so on.”
Ms. Alvarado said that while the IISC doesn’t provide VRET, she can see how it could be an effective therapy or experience, particularly for seniors.
“When the Nintendo Wii came out, a lot of senior centers used them with their residents. It was getting seniors up and moving. So I can definitely see there being a therapeutic component to virtual reality, whether its for seniors or other populations that perhaps need some distraction or some mindfulness or something to help them focus.”
Ms. Alvarado said that the coronavirus pandemic changed the way virtual reality was used in medicine, particularly as a teaching tool.
“When COVID happened we didn’t know what was going on, we didn’t know how we were going to do this. But from an educational standpoint, every university and academic center in the world really knew that they had to continue to teach. We had to prepare those learners for what was potentially a new world of healthcare. We had to teach the future,” said Ms. Alvarado.
“A lot of companies used virtual scenarios to teach and these modules were available virtually. Even though students couldn’t physically be in the clinical areas, they still had an opportunity to practice these very lifelike scenarios and prepare them for the day that when they had a chance to go back in the clinical world, it wouldn’t be a first encounter. They would have some comfort level because they had already experienced it virtually.”
Ms. Alvarado predicts that while virtual reality is an effective teaching tool, it won’t replace traditional medical education.
“From a University of Toledo standpoint, there is so much virtual reality software out there,” she said. “I compare it to an iPhone and there’s an endless sea of apps. I don’t believe that VR is going to replace a lot of healthcare education; I personally feel its going to augment what we do. ... [W]e are in the profession of treating people, having empathy, using our hands to physically repair something. While VR can help provide some of that education, the skill and the art of working with people is still going to be there. We’re just hoping to give our students a competitive edge and get them in touch with more of their empathy and their critical thinking early on in their education.”
Hospitals embrace VR
John Pigott, MD, Chief Innovations Officer for ProMedica, said that virtual reality technology is used in a number of ways throughout the healthcare system, citing Ohio companies such as GigXR and MediView XR, which works with ProMedica and the Cleveland Clinic.
“The entire industry is early but there are a number of active use cases that we’re already investigating at ProMedica,” said Dr. Pigott. “In virtual reality, you’re totally immersed and can’t see the outside world, such as the Oculus headset from Meta. But for medical use, the better platform right now is the HoloLens by Microsoft. You can turn that into extended reality or augmented reality where you can still see the outside world and interpose different fields on that.
“You can put on the headset and see anatomy in 3D, so there’s a lot of medical schools that are going to cadaver-less anatomy classes.”
Dr. Pigott said that virtual reality is an effective tool for improving the lives of patients.
“All of this virtual reality benefits the patients because you can train to a very high level and transfer all your training and experience from virtual reality right into the operating room.”
First Published April 23, 2023, 4:00 a.m.
