Practice makes perfect, patient safety enhanced

VR technology has been introduced to train interns at Multi-disciplinary Simulation and Skills Centre (MDSSC) of the Kowloon Central Cluster to enhance the patient safety since October 2018.

Associate Consultant of Intensive Care Unit, Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), Dr Sin Kai‑cheuk, who is in charge of intern simulation training at the hospital, launched the VR training programme after getting insights from an international medical conference where the use of VR in medical students’ education was discussed.

MDSSC teamed up with the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University to use VR in training for type and screen for blood transfusion in early 2018. More than 70 QEH interns have received VR‑assisted training since October 2018. It is planned to extend the technology to other training areas such as blood culture procedures.

Dr Sin explains that under traditional training methods, a pathologist would explain the procedures to the interns who would then use a blood drawing simulator – a high fidelity hand – to practise under the pathologist’s guidance. This arrangement is inflexible and does not allow repetitive training. However, these shortfalls are addressed by the new VR technology.

QEH intern Dr Helen Kwan, who received the VR training, says, “There are around 20 steps in the type and screen for blood transfusion covering the procedures of checking patient’s identity, drawing off blood, arranging to transferring blood specimens, and sterilising of hands. We cannot miss a single step. With the VR training, I can practise several times which relieves the stress when I conduct the procedure on patients and enhances patient safety.”

Dr George Ng, Associate Director of MDSSC, says VR will be increasingly used in simulation training in future. “Doctors in Mainland China and Taiwan have already been using VR technology in simulation training in procedures of neurosurgery and ear, nose and throat surgeries,” he explains. “VR technology is also used in the training for handling serious trauma cases in United Kingdom and United States.”