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Virtual Reality in Medicine pp 181–210Cite as

VR for Medical Training

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Abstract

There are several benefits of applying VR technology to medicine. VR is more comprehensive than books and cadavers. It is also time and case independent, as the users can train and repeat medical skills at any time they want. Surgeons can practice treatments in extreme situations without taking a risk for the patient, as no patients are directly involved. Procedures are observable and reproducible, and performance can be recorded and used for assessment or evaluation of the treatment. Moreover, augmented information can be displayed to assist the treatment or decision making. Medical applications can benefit from VR in several areas. VR in medicine aims to optimize cost, improve quality of the education and therapy, allow long and efficient training sessions, and increase safety.

The major advantage of VR-based training is that an interactive and engaging setting enables an operator to learn through a first-person experience. Tasks are represented, which would be dangerous, expensive, or even infeasible to undertake in a real setting.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sensory-Motor Systems Lab ETH Zurich, University Hospital Balgrist, Zürich, Switzerland

    Robert Riener

  2. Computer Vision Lab, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Matthias Harders

Authors
  1. Robert Riener
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  2. Matthias Harders
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Correspondence to Robert Riener .

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© 2012 Springer-Verlag London

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Riener, R., Harders, M. (2012). VR for Medical Training. In: Virtual Reality in Medicine. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4011-5_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-4011-5_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-4010-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-4011-5

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