Using single player virtual simulations for training on collaborative medical practice

Abstract

The development of safe, efficient and effective methods for training medical practitioners, using single player virtual simulations, has been undertaken by Østfold Hospital Trust (ØHT) in Norway. The hospital has developed and tested a prototype of a virtual thrombosis procedure, with the goal that a well-integrated training application will help increase patient survival rate by decreasing the treatment time. We have evaluated the prototype, focusing on the social and collaborative aspects of medical practice targeted by the simulation. As the thrombosis treatment is an example of collaborative work, we have used insights from Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW), and how related concepts like situated action, contingency and awareness have been developed in this field. The study has combined observations, interviews and user testing. Through field studies at the hospital, we have observed the work practice and alternative training methods undertaken by hospital staff. The hospital management and the developers of the prototype have been interviewed, revealing the formal work descriptions of the thrombosis procedure and the design and development work undertaken to produce the prototype. We have also performed user evaluation of the prototype with the staff responsible for performing the procedure. This study has shed light on the highly situated and collaborative nature of thrombosis treatment at ØHT and we have found that the virtual simulation was a realistic representation of the work environment, the standardized procedure and the setup of the team responsible for the treatment. However, the medical staff reported that the simulation did not adequately represent the procedure as performed in practice. Further we suggest the following implications for designing virtual training applications targeting collaborative medical practice; 1) it is important that meaningful awareness information is available to the user, 2) choosing the right level of abstraction is critical. To be able to represent the contingencies in collaborative medical practice by randomized scenarios in virtual training applications, this study indicate that highly realistic gameplay needs to be sacrificed.