Vital Times 2019 - 96

Immersive Reality
for Resuscitation
By Clyde Matava MD, Bill Kapralos PhD, Fahad Alam MD

nesthesiologists and anesthesia providers must
be competent in the management of operating
room (OR) emergencies and resuscitation. The
skills required to achieve competency have traditionally
been acquired through didactic teaching, e-learning,
videos, mannequin-based simulation and real-world
clinical exposure. Immersive reality technologies are
relatively new to the field of medicine and particularly to
anesthesia. Immersive reality may offer new modalities
for training, testing and maintaining skills useful in
the management of resuscitation or emergencies by
anesthesia providers.
This article will introduce the reader to the basic
concepts of immersive reality and highlight examples that
demonstrate the utility of this technology in the training
of resuscitation.
Immersive reality is an all-inclusive term for virtual
reality, augmented reality, mixed reality and 360° video
technologies. Virtual reality (VR) as a potentially
valuable education tool that has long been established
within healthcare and the broader industry. VR is any
type of computer-generated immersive environment with
which users can interact; by contrast, augmented reality
(AR) involves overlaying computer-generated elements
over a real-world setting, while mixed reality (MR)

96 | CSA Vital Times

blends aspects of VR and AR. MR can detect both realworld and virtual items in 3-D, allowing for interaction
across these realities. In this article, immersive reality
(IR) is used as the overarching term encompassing VR,
AR, and MR; where users wear a head mounted display
(HMD).
Head-mounted displays (HMDs), also known as
headsets, where display screens cover the user's visual
field, are most commonly used to facilitate IR. In VR,
HMDs entirely obstruct the view of the real world, and
the user can only perceive the images of the virtual world
displayed on the HMD's screens. VR allows a user to
experience a fully immersive computer-generated 3D
environment that enables the user to (virtually) walk
around or sit in a fishbowl experience and interact with
objects using hand-controllers. Common to VR, AR,
and MR is immersion. Immersion is the sensation of
"presence" in a computer-generated world, that is created
by hardware that provides sensory stimuli, including
visual, auditory, and tactile stimuli. This makes IR
particularly attractive for the teaching of resuscitation
as it involves recreated high-fidelity environments
and critical physical elements. In the creation of a VR
scenario for advanced airway management training
for epidural placement and neurosurgical training,
our Collaborative Human Immersive Interactions

Vital Times 2019

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