Professor Riikka Hofmann at the Faculty of Education is leading analysis of a new way of teaching medical students at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, using the latest in mixed reality holographic patients.

The technology enables world-class teaching and learning through life-like holographic patient scenarios, accessible from anywhere in the world. The new mixed-reality training application is called HoloScenarios and is being developed by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH), in partnership with the University of Cambridge and Los Angeles based tech company GigXR. The first module focuses on common respiratory conditions and emergencies.

Learners in the same room, wearing Microsoft HoloLens mixed reality headsets, are able to see each other in real life, while also interacting with a multi-layered, medically accurate holographic patient. This creates a unique environment to learn and practice vital, real-time decision making and treatment choices.

Through the same type of headset, medical instructors are able to change patient responses, introduce complications and record observations and discussions, whether in person in a teaching group or remotely to multiple locations worldwide, via the internet.

Learners can also watch, contribute to and assess the holographic patient scenarios from Android, iOS smartphone or tablet. This means true-to-life, safe-to-fail immersive learning can be accessed, delivered and shared across the world, with the technology now available for license to learning institutions everywhere.

Junior doctor Aniket Bharadwaj is one of the first to try out the new technology. He said: "Throughout medical school we would have situations where actors would come in an act as patients. With the pandemic a lot of that changed to tablet based interactions because of the risk to people of the virus. Having a hologram patient you can see, hear and interact with is really exciting and will really make a difference to student learning."

The first module features a hologram patient with asthma, followed by anaphylaxis, pulmonary embolism and pneumonia. Further modules in cardiology and neurology are in development.

Delivered by the Gig Immersive Learning Platform, HoloScenarios aims to centralise and streamline access and management of mixed reality learning, and encapsulate the medical experience of world-leading doctors at CUH and across the University of Cambridge. The new technology could also provide more flexible, cost-effective training without heavy resource demands of traditional simulation, which can make immersive training financially prohibitive. This includes costs for maintaining simulation centres, their equipment and the faculty and staff hours to operate the labs and hire and train patient actors.

Alongside the development and release of HoloScenarios, Hofmann is leading an analysis of the new HoloScenarios technology as a teaching and learning resource. She said: “Our research is aimed at uncovering how such simulations can best support learning and accelerate the adoption of effective mixed reality training while informing ongoing development. We hope that it will help guide institutions in implementing mixed reality into their curricula, in the same way institutions evaluate conventional resources, such as textbooks, manikins, models or computer software, and, ultimately, improve patient outcomes.”

Dr Arun Gupta, consultant anaesthetist at CUH and director of postgraduate education at Cambridge University Health Partnership, who is leading the full project, said: "Mixed reality is increasingly recognised as a useful method of simulator training. As institutions scale procurement, the demand for platforms that offer utility and ease of mixed reality learning management is rapidly expanding."

This story is reproduced from the Cambridge University Hospitals website. For further details visit: https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/news/world-first-in-hologram-patients/