Augmented Reality in Radiology for Education and Training—A Design Study

Abstract

Education is an important component of every healthcare system. Patients need to be educated about their planned procedures; healthcare professionals need to be trained in their respective profession. Both patient education and the training of healthcare professionals are often completed in person, which requires resources and is bound to certain times and places. Virtual educational environments can potentially save human and monetary resources, increase learner engagement, and enable users to learn according to their own schedules. This design study describes proofs of concept for two augmented reality-enabled (AR) educational tools, utilizing a Microsoft HoloLens head-mounted display. In the first use case, we demonstrate an AR application which could be used to educate cancer patients about their radiotherapy treatment and potentially reduce patient anxiety. The second use case demonstrates an AR training environment, which could complement the practical training of undergraduate radiography students. Two prototypes—VIPER, for patient education, and ARTUR for the training of radiography students—were developed and tested for viability and usability, both based on individual user tests. Both patient and student education were evaluated as viable and usable additions to conventional educational methods, despite being limited in terms of accessibility, usability, and fidelity. Suitable hardware is becoming more accessible and capable, and higher-fidelity holograms, better utilization of real-world objects, and more intuitive input methods could increase user immersion and acceptance of the technology.

Usability: An introduction to and literature review of usability testing for educational resources in radiation oncology

“…Most examples of usability testing in the radiation oncology medical education literature describe the design of a patient information resource (13/15, 87%), although there are also examples of usability assessment use in designing resources for healthcare professionals (4/15, 27%). There are two examples of papers which do both: Juraskova et al [21] describe the design of educational modules for both clinicians and patients/caregivers, and the study by Raith et al [42] describes two separate augmented reality protocols for patients and radiographers respectively.…”

“…Although most studies assessed usability on the intended target audience this was not universal; there was one example of a study where clinicians alone were used to assess the usability of a resource being designed for patients. Raith et al, [42] were unable to assess their augmented reality resource on patients due to the restraints of the covid-19 pandemic.…”

Expanding an Education-based Collision Detection System Created on Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

“…Raith, A., Kamp, C., Stoiber, C., et al [5] Techniques for correctly placing patients are an essential component of radiographers' daily clinical tasks. As a result, the second use case shows a working prototype of an interactive augmented reality system for teaching undergraduate cinematography pupils.…”

A Multiuser, Multisite, and Platform-Independent On-the-Cloud Framework for Interactive Immersion in Holographic XR

“…Providing location-independent infrastructure in this multiuser paradigm is crucial and is accomplished by leveraging local or public cloud infrastructures. An example is the immersive experience of patients remotely using HMD or HHD in a treatment environment [40,41].…”