Remote Immersive Virtual Reality Teaching:

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.