Remote Immersive Virtual Reality Teaching:

NCT05755724 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: 5424
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 24
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

Patients in rural Canada face serious anesthesia care deficiencies relative to their counterparts in urban centers. Despite 18% of Canadians living in rural settings only 3.1% of medical specialists practice in rural areas. To provide equity in healthcare there is a need to develop a network where specialists in urban centers can provide training, coaching, and support to physicians in rural communities. Despite some work being done this is not possible for all specialists due to cost and travel. One potential solution to this problem is telesimulation, whereby telecommunication and simulation tools are used to provide training remotely. Simple, 2D telesimulation setups using webcams and computers have been used to teach remotely but problems with video displays and learner engagement have occurred leading to a need for more sophisticated telesimulation tools. Recently, virtual reality (VR) systems have been developed allowing the learner and teacher to immerse in a 3D computer-generated environment where they feel as if they are in the same room. We propose to see whether teaching ultrasound guided regional anesthesia (UGRA), a skill required by rural physicians, using 3D VR is better than teaching by 2D tele simulation.

Conditions

Educational Problems; Acute Pain

Keywords

Regional Anesthesia; Education; Ultrasound

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Difference in scores from before (pretest) to after training (posttest) using an Assessment Checklist for Ultrasound-Guided Regional Anesthesia.

  Difference in scores from before (pretest) to after training (posttest) will be assessed using a validated procedural checklist termed as the Assessment Checklist for Ultrasound-Guided Regional Anesthesia. The checklist has 22 items which will be graded as not performed (0 Marks), performed poorly (1 Mark), or performed well (2 Marks).

  15 minutes

• Difference in scores from before (pretest) to after training (posttest) using an Global Rating Scale (GRS) for assessment of Ultrasound Guided Regional Anesthesia.

  Difference in scores from before (pretest) to after training (posttest) will be assessed using a validatedGlobal Rating Scale termed as the Global Rating Scale (GRS) for assessment of Ultrasound Guided Regional Anesthesia.The GRS has 9 items with a score of 1-5 for each item, with 1 correlating to a very poor performance and 5 correlating to a clearly superior performance.

  15 minutes

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Qualitative assessment of teacher and student satisfaction for each modality

  10 minutes

• Time required to teach UGRA using each modality

  10 minutes

Study Arms (2)

Remote immersive virtual reality group (3D) teaching

EXPERIMENTAL

Telesimulation using immersive VR technology. Briefly, students will have a 360° camera mounted to their head, which will broadcast their first-person perspective to their teachers. Teachers will be able to immerse themselves in the perspective of the trainee using a virtual reality HMD (Oculus Quest 2), which allows them to look around freely and view equipment, hand movements, etc. and offer instruction accordingly.

Other: 3-D Teaching

Remote 2 D teaching

PLACEBO COMPARATOR

Telesimulation using standard teleconferencing software and equipment including 2D computer monitors, webcams, and an ultrasound machine linked to a computer (enabling ultrasound images to be transmitted).

Other: 2-D Teaching

Interventions

3-D Teaching OTHER

Telesimulation using immersive VR technology. Briefly, students will have a 360° camera mounted to their head, which will broadcast their first-person perspective to their teachers. Teachers will be able to immerse themselves in the perspective of the trainee using a virtual reality HMD (Oculus Quest 2), which allows them to look around freely and view equipment, hand movements, etc. and offer instruction accordingly.

Also known as: Remote immersive virtual reality group (3D) teaching

Remote immersive virtual reality group (3D) teaching

2-D Teaching OTHER

Telesimulation using standard teleconferencing software and equipment including 2D computer monitors, webcams, and an ultrasound machine linked to a computer (enabling ultrasound images to be transmitted).

Also known as: Remote 2 D Teaching

Remote 2 D teaching

Eligibility Criteria

• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Participants are medical students from year 1 and 2

You may not qualify if:

• Participants with any prior exposure (workshop, lecture, tutorial, actual performance) of ultrasound guided procedures, including regional anesthesia.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre: lead

Study Sites (1)

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Toronto, Ontario, M4N 3M5, Canada

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Acute Pain

Interventions

Educational Status

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Pain; Neurologic Manifestations; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Socioeconomic Factors; Population Characteristics

Study Officials

• Ahtsham U Niazi, FRCPC

  Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Masking Details: Double blinded
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor

Model Details: The study will be designed as a single-centre, prospective, double blinded, randomized (1:1) trial

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: February 11, 2023
• First Posted: March 6, 2023
• Study Start: February 11, 2023
• Primary Completion: June 30, 2024
• Study Completion: June 30, 2024
• Last Updated: August 23, 2024

Record last verified: 2024-08

Locations

CA (1)