Hand tracking and haptic-based jugular neonate central venous access procedure

Abstract

Medical simulators are important because they provide means to teach, learn, train, practice and develop skills necessary during medical practice. Simulation also allows exposing trainees to scenarios not possible during training, thus covering a wide range of life-like situations. Although widely used, simulation still faces challenges due to the high costs associated with the simulation equipment. Current advances in computer graphics and user interfaces provide affordable tools that allow exploring solutions in different medical fields. In this paper, we focus on the jugular central venous access performed on neonates, a procedure commonly practice to save lives through drug, nutrients and other medication administration. Simulation to practice this procedure is scarce and focused on adult simulation, yielding to transfer of knowledge to treat a neonate. Our approach focuses on developing a simulation prototype covering the preparation steps and execution of the procedure. To provide natural interactions, we integrated hand motion capture with haptics within a virtual environment representing the operation room. To study the prototype’s user experience we asked 12 participants from last year of medical school to use the prototype.