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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Digit. Health
Sec. Connected Health
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2024.1479544
This article is part of the Research Topic VR, AR, MR in Healthcare: The Role of Immersive Technologies in Medical Training View all 4 articles

Augmented Reality for extremity hemorrhage training: a usability study

Provisionally accepted
Krishant Tharun Krishant Tharun 1Alberto Drogo Alberto Drogo 2Carmine Tommaso Recchiuto Carmine Tommaso Recchiuto 1Serena Ricci Serena Ricci 1,3*
  • 1 Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and System Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy
  • 2 Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy, Milano, Lombardy, Italy
  • 3 Simulation and Advanced Education Center - SimAv, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy, Genoa, Italy

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Limb massive hemorrhage is the first cause of potentially preventable death in trauma. Its prompt and proper management is crucial to increase the survival rate. To handle a massive hemorrhage, it is important to train people without medical background, who might be the first responders in an emergency. Among the possible ways to train lay rescuers, healthcare simulation allows to practice in a safe and controlled environment. In particular, immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) give the possibility to provide real time feedback and present a realistic and engaging scenario. However, one of the current limitations of immersive solutions for medical training, lies in the lack of personalization. This work aims to overcome this limitation, by presenting the design, development and usability test of an AR application to train non-experienced users on the use of anti-hemorrhagic devices. The application combines a Microsoft Hololens2 headset, with an AR application developed in Unity Game Engine. It includes a training scenario with a multimodal interactive system made of visual and audio cues, that would adapt to user's learning pace and feedback preference. Tests on 20 subjects demonstrated that the system is well tolerated in terms of discomfort and workload. Also, the system has been high rated for usability, user experience, immersion and sense of presence; thus, suggesting that it can be a promising tool to improve hemorrhage management training.

    Keywords: augmented reality, simulation-based training, Anti-hemorrhage devices, Massive limb bleeding, hemorrhage management, Healthcare simulation

    Received: 12 Aug 2024; Accepted: 16 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Tharun, Drogo, Recchiuto and Ricci. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Serena Ricci, Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and System Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.