New technologies and scientific developments over the recent years have radically changed the landscape in health and education, bringing benefits that were unimaginable until recently but also problems for workers, teachers and students. Many systems, devices and techniques used in the daily work are becoming increasingly complex and automated, requiring specific training or, at best, skill updating for health professionals. In the educational area, due to the high cost of acquisition of many devices used in hospitals, their complexity and their hazard (for example, in the field of radiological protection), students in Health Education Training Centres cannot experience how these devices work and neither can they see the real environment they will have to face in the future. The training of these students is drifting away from the reality that they will encounter and this is a problem both for students and for biomedical companies themselves. In this context, the general objectives of the project "Extended reality in biomedical environments" are: to bring closer together the reality of biomedical companies and health training centres through mixed reality, augmented reality and virtual reality and to improve the knowledge acquisition of our Students in health care training. To solve the problems described above and to take advantage of the possibilities of extended reality, the project proposes four lines of work that will be materialized in 4 products: 1. Remote training or Tele-training: a video conference with virtual elements (computer graphics, images, etc.) in which a speaker from a Specialized Biomedical Research Center explains a technique or a device in a biomedical environment to our students, who are physically present at the educational center. 2. Virtual rendering of professional biomedical environments: the aim is to build virtual working environments faithfully and quickly using BIM technology that can be used on different platforms (mobile, tablet, PC...) or even 3D printing. 3. Holographic simulators: in this line, the aim is to create virtual simulators of biomedical devices using virtual and mixed reality that have functionalities similar to those of a real device, with the possibilities of enriching the experience with didactic elements. 4. Holographic tutorials: this is the creation of devices tutorials using holograms and multimedia elements that help students understand and manage them. In the development of the project, which lasts 36 months, 6 public and private institutions are working together: - CIFP Los Gladiolos (Spain): Vocational Training Centre specialized in health system professions. It is the coordinating centre of the project. - Kauno Kolegija University (Lithuania): working closely with CIFP Los Gladiolos, it is in charge of the methodological proposal of the project. - University of La Laguna (Spain): together with the University of Videzme, it is responsible for coordinating the digital production of the resources (professional environments and simulators) and for providing technical support for tele-training and holographic tutorials. - University of Vidzeme (Latvia): it is a university with great prestige and experience in European projects and technological innovation. - The company Geoavance (Spain): carries out the scanning of professional environments and its BIM modeling. - The Basque Health Service. Osakidetza (Spain): in collaboration with Bioaraba - OSI Araba - Health Research Institute, it is responsible for organizing the scans to be carried out and for providing quality and rigorous information on the radiological protection equipment selected. To carry out all this, the work will be coordinated on the basis of the needs detected in the health training centres (Los Gladiolos and Kauno Kolegija). With these needs and with the advice of the Basque Health Service ,Osakidetza, proposals will be made for content and teaching methods that will be materialised in educational resources created or supported by the University of La Laguna, University of Vidzeme and Geoavance. The expected results are the improvement in the training for students, closing the reality gap between training centres and biomedical companies, a greater interest of companies in the work carried out by educational centres and finally the creation of high quality resources for teachers. In the long term, it is expected that these 4 products will be transferred to other European educational centres and will be further enhanced in order to improve their main objectives: to bring the reality of the biomedical companies even closer to the educational centres and to improve training for thousands of students.
We wanted to achive an useful way to try an immersive learning experience that allows students to interact with three-dimensional models and realistic scenarios, facilitating a deeper understanding of biosanitary concepts and procedures. Other fundamental accomplishment we wanted to get were: -A safe training environment where students can practice medical procedures and clinical situations without risks to real patients, reducing potential errors and boosting students' confidence. -Access to Hard-to-Replicate Scenarios: Some medical scenarios or clinical situations are challenging to replicate in a conventional training environment. For example, the use of an Operating Room.
The justification for implementing this project was mainly to solve and cover practicing and learning gaps in students with the intellectual products created. We achieved these objectives through highly innovative intellectual outcomes. Biomedical scenarios employing various technologies (BIM, 360° photos), virtual biomedical equipment (scanned and modeled) with which interaction is possible and containing various multimedia elements, e-learning courses, and holographic tutorials (the latter developed thanks to Hololens 2). The range of devices on which the products can ultimately be used is extensive, including cardboard, Hololens 2, Oculus Quest 2, PC, and smartphones. This project has solved problems related with the real situations in the sanitary field and the lack of expertise in cutting-edge sanitary equipments. The project EXTENDED REALITY IN BIOMEDICAL ENVIRONMENTS aim was the development and implement innovative products to enhance the quality of teaching in the higher education and University. The project has been made based on Learning outcomes not approachable in higher healthcare studies, due to a mismatch between this learning outcomes in its training needs and professional practice in medical settings.