GigXR & University of Michigan Partner on XR Procedure Training Suite

GigXR and the University of Michigan have partnered to develop the XR Procedure Training Suite, a training application that uses hyper-realistic holographic patients and mixed reality (MR) visual cues to develop manual and practical skills in preclinical education.

Built to augment task trainers as well as help students and trainees learn a specific procedure before they start practicing the tactile muscle memory, the new holographic training suite can be used with or without a manikin to help guide students through common procedures, to navigate complications and master their manual skills for real-life patient encounters.

Unlike manikins, which are often limited in range of simulated conditions, extremely costly for high-fidelity models, and time consuming to set up, the XR Procedure Training Suite leverages GigXR’s ability to create life-like MR learning scenarios that are also incredibly easy to access and deploy.

Learners using the XR Procedure Training Suite will be able to observe a wide variety of patient presentations and train in developing diagnostic skills for various pathologies, such as taking vitals, listening to the patient’s lungs and comparing X-rays and CT scans tests, tests, and even practicing ultrasound, among many more life-like features for evolving scenarios. Instructors can also instantly introduce complications to the scenario like deteriorating vital signs, disease progression, punctured vessels, vomiting, bleeding, procedural complications, pain and more.

The XR Procedure Training Suite fully immerses students in hyper-realistic clinical scenarios that are safe-to-fail and closely mimics the experience they’d have in a real-world clinical environment. A 2021 systematic review of head-mounted virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and MR devices in medical education found that training with these devices was effective as either a primary or supplementary teaching tool in 93% of the 27 studies reviewed. Learners surveyed, many of whom were medical students or residents, found training with such devices to be motivating and engaging.

“Our goal and impact for creating the XR Procedure Training Suite is not just in accelerating skills development, but in empowering instructors to provide training that results in more efficient and safer patient care that ultimately would lead to improved patient outcomes,” said Dr. Mark Cohen, Professor of Surgery, Pharmacology, and Biomedical Engineering at Michigan Medicine, the academical medical center of the University of Michigan.

Delivered through GigXR’s Immersive Learning Platform, the XR Procedure Training Suite will serve as an on-demand instructor-led training tool for students, no matter where they are located, and will be accessible on Microsoft’s HoloLens, iOS and Android devices. Instructors will be able to launch lessons quickly, use one-tap QR codes for student logins and repurpose lesson plans with in-lesson notes or comments. This allows both instructors and students to optimize access to the platform and maximize the benefits of collaborative learning within the app.

GigXR and University of Michigan plan to launch the XR Procedure Training Suite by mid-2022.