Burbach, Simon

The development of modern technologies like virtual reality (VR) has paved the way for the creation of novel applications. This paper presents the medical context, a prototype for the simulation of lower extremity amputations, as well as the prototype's feasibility study. The simulation's aim is to prepare patients and their relatives for the upcoming amputation. Moreover, the application is designed to promote compassion and empathy towards amputees among people without any prior experience in the topic of amputation. Additionally, we present a standalone version of the prototype. Adapted from the original prototype, this VR application is now optimized to operate on standalone VR devices. The main results of the feasibility study are that the environment and the used avatar were perceived as real. The study also showed that further developments should increase the sensation of embodiment.

An increasing need for medical services, declining numbers of trained doctors and ongoing digitization give an opportunity to find innovative methods that can improve medical teaching. This paper presents a virtual reality application that can be used to learn how to perform and analyze an electrocardiogram (ECG). The application is intended to show students of medical-related courses how the electrodes are attached correctly and offers the possibility of interpreting ECG images and naming a diagnosis. A prototype of the ECG trainer was successfully implemented and will be tested in a future study. The study design is also presented in this paper.

Hypertension is a common disease that requires early diagnosis, treatment, and careful monitoring. Far from risky invasive procedures, contact-based and contactless measurement methods without a cuff show the potential to detect blood pressure disorders and thus to prevent cardiovascular diseases. In addition to methods that evaluate pulse wave velocity based on pulse transit time and pulse arrival time camera-based methods rely on color changes of the skin. Innovative approaches such as transdermal optical imaging can even be applied via the patient's smartphone. This paper presents current research approaches and methods of cuffless, noninvasive, and contactless blood pressure measurement and discusses their advantages and accompanying challenges.

The current information era provides the population with new innovative technologies, including extended reality (XR). These innovations enhance their scope with new opportunities. While extended reality found its way into medical teaching, its application is limmited. Causal is the lack of haptic feedback, which limits the immersive experience. While simulation devices exist, haptic gloves are oftentimes only applicable for enterprise use and not available for everyone, because of their high prices. Therefore Lucas VRTech developed the LucidGloves to allow a widespread use of cheap haptic gloves. In this paper, a suitability test is performed to determine whether the Prototype 4 of the LucidGloves is suitable for use in medical teaching, based on expert interviews with four physicians.

The teaching of medicine is in a state of flux. New technologies enable students to learn faster and more efficiently than ever before. Especially the possibilities that augmented reality brings with it can be applied very well in this field. The possibility to project additional information directly into the user’s field of vision allows him to perceive additional knowledge without being distracted from the actual work. In this paper, a possibility of training Mamma Palpation is presented, which teaches students the course of action and the detection of possible tumors through virtual points. Through guideline-based interviews, added value for teaching could be highlighted.