Quantitative influence and performance analysis of virtual reality laparoscopic surgical training system

Abstract

Background Virtual reality (VR) surgery training has become a trend in clinical education. Many research papers validate the effectiveness of VR-based surgical simulators in training medical students. However, most existing articles employ subjective methods to study the residents’ surgical skills improvement. Few of them investigate how to improve the surgery skills on specific dimensions substantially. Methods Our paper resorts to physiological approaches to objectively study the quantitative influence and performance analysis of VR laparoscopic surgical training system for medical students. Fifty-one participants were recruited from a pool of medical students. They conducted four pre and post experiments in the training box. They were trained on VR-based laparoscopic surgery simulators (VRLS) in the middle of pre and post experiments. Their operation and physiological data (heart rate and electroencephalogram) are recorded during the pre and post experiments. The physiological data is used to compute cognitive load and flow experience quantitatively. Senior surgeons graded their performance using newly designed hybrid standards for fundamental tasks and Global operative assessment of laparoscopic skills (GOALS) standards for colon resection tasks. Finally, the participants were required to fill the questionnaires about their cognitive load and flow experience. Results After training on VRLS, the time of the experimental group to complete the same task could drop sharply (p < 0.01). The performance scores are enhanced significantly (p < 0.01). The performance and cognitive load computed from EEG are negatively correlated (p < 0.05). Conclusion The results show that the VRLS could highly improve medical students' performance and enable the participants to obtain flow experience with a lower cognitive load. Participants' performance is negatively correlated with cognitive load through quantitative physiological analysis. This might provide a new way of assessing skill acquirement.

A new dimension in medical education: Virtual reality in anatomy during COVID‐19 pandemic

“…VR allows for the creation of realistic, interactive environments that can be used to train surgeons and other medical professionals, as well as to test new procedures and devices. Other research has shown that VR can be an effective tool for teaching surgical skills and for training healthcare professionals in laparoscopic surgery (Aoki et al, 2020; Gleason et al, 2022; Kamat et al, 2022; Mori et al, 2022; Yu et al, 2022) and neurosurgery (Petrone et al, 2022).…”

Adding Safety Rules to Surgeon-Authored Virtual Reality Training

“…Because the TIPS authoring environment allows SEs to build customizable VR lap scenarios, there is the opportunity for the creation of a range of cost-effective VR-training units with greater variety, specialization, and relevance, addressing the need for enhanced individualized deliberate practice 38,39 . Virtual reality remains a nascent field in surgical education, yet emergent research indicates that VR-based surgical simulators reduce cognitive load and encourage flow state, potentially translating to reductions in training time for skill acquisition 40 . We feel that the adaptability, trialability, and affordances offered by the TIPS provide significant opportunities for surgical educators and trainees.…”

Metaverse Wearables for Immersive Digital Healthcare: A Review

“…A quantitative analysis approach was also introduced to evaluate the VR training performance of surgical instruments such as laparoscopy. [133] Fifty-one participants wearing an ECG sensor were trained for four tasks through a VR laparoscopic surgery [126] Copyright 2018, Elsevier. c) Diagram of immersive manipulation through VR platform and holographic microscopy.…”

“…d) Demonstration of VR laparoscopic surgery simulation. Reproduced with permission [133]. Copyright 2022, BMC.…”