The Role of Virtual Reality in Orthopaedic Surgery Education
Condition: Virtual Reality; Surgical Training
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality are becoming prominent in the medical sciences due
      to the increasing sophistication of VR technology and its improving haptics to simulate
      real-life situations. Previous medical VR studies focused on arthroscopic minimally-invasive
      procedures which often do not carry the risk of invasive procedures. OssoVR, an orthopedic
      surgery virtual reality company, has created a platform to run through different invasive
      orthopedic procedures prior to operating on a patient. Given that invasive procedures
      inherently carry more risk and variability than minimally invasive procedures, training tools
      to help with these operations are vital prior to performing on a patient. The research team
      will evaluate the face validity, transfer validity, and surgical recall of the orthopedic
      virtual reality software in an intramedullary (IM) tibial nail procedure. The research team
      will evaluate the simulation with medical students who have not had prior exposure to the
      procedure. Including medical students will allow for a larger sample size for more analysis.
      An IM tibial nail procedure is used in tibial fractures to help stabilize the fractured long
      bone via placement of a nail within the bone.
    

Detailed description: 
      Virtual reality has the potential to make a significant impact on medical education at both
      the medical student and resident level. OssoVR is one of the first companies that has
      produced functioning software for this niche student group. Medical students gain intimate
      knowledge regarding the musculoskeletal system helpful for the board exam and a unique
      insight into procedures they will see during clerkship. This offers them a larger potential
      to learn when seeing the procedure in the OR, and a view of orthopedic surgery they might not
      have if they decide to go into other specialties. Testing its efficacy on medical students
      will help reveal whether or not it may be helpful to have residents use virtual reality
      rather than reading a step-by-step guide, which is currently the norm for residents after
      observing the procedure performed by an attending. There is strong agreement in the
      literature that simulation technology should be a required part of orthopedic residence
      training (5) and that it improves resident surgical performance. The study was limited to
      medical students due to the limited number of orthopedic residents at UIC that have not seen
      an IM tibial nail procedure.

      Objectives/Aims

      Aim I. Test the procedural competence of the VR versus the step-by-step guide of IM tibial
      nail. I will have all of the students go through the procedure on SawBones separately.
      SawBones are artificial bones used to help train orthopedic students on how to perform a
      surgery prior to performing the surgery. To ensure blinding, Dr. Gonzalez evaluate their
      performance as he is a professional in orthopedic surgery and has the appropriate background
      for proper evaluation of accuracy. He will evaluate their time to complete the procedure,
      their accuracy in following the steps, and their OSATS score which is used to evaluate
      surgical technical skills.

      Aim II. Evaluate how the students who completed the VR simulation felt regarding it. After
      going through the tibial nail simulation, the students will take a subjective survey
      regarding how they felt about the experience adapted from a current questionnaire used for
      virtual environment experiences .
    

Intervention name(s): Virtual Reality
Intervention type(s): Device
Intervention description(s): A machine which immerses the participant in a simulated environment where they can perform a procedure.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Outcomes Assessor)
Primary purpose: Basic Science