Immersive Technology in Healthcare

The potential of immersive technology is widely recognised with the technology now available at low cost. There is a gap in the use of this technology in healthcare, this project will trial virtual reality in a range of scenarios to monitor and measure its effectiveness as an innovative training and support tool in healthcare.

Immersive videos will step through ‘a day in the life of…’ for roles that are hard to recruit or have high vacancies, in a practical, realistic environment. Video contributions will be from staff in entry-level positions, apprentices, and senior staff.

Take an example of a complex patient journey e.g. an adult with a learning disability living in supported housing, following their journey through a range of health and social care interventions to demonstrate collaborative working of a wide range of health and social care professionals providing holistic care.

SPECS will also design a learning tool and operator training for HWE H&C Academy colleagues to adapt and update the extended reality (XR) productions and to create new immersive training and promotional products in‐house. The created XR productions can also be viewed as 2D on websites and will be freely distributed across HWE healthcare.

•  Minimum of two extended reality products, also available in 2D for broader reach 
• Trial novel approaches, and test the opportunities AR, VR and XR can offer. Measure improved clinical and medical education and placement experience by working with the existing clinical learning and education programme 
• Measure the impact of innovation in medical, clinical and care training across the system such as:
• Improved retention of students
• Increased quality of education and placement experience
• Increase in those choosing a healthcare career 
• Increased number of students studying healthcare courses at Herts
• Support drive to recruit into less well-known healthcare roles  
• Train ICS staff to autonomously produce XR-based training and promotional products
• User evaluation,feedback collected at events and online. The HWE Health Care Academy will evaluate the productions' effectiveness
• Sector-specific literature review reports, publications and REF 2029 submission