About this Research Topic

Background

There is a range of medical and healthcare topics unique to the military domain, both in terms of active-duty injuries and long-term rehabilitation. Unlike other medical domains, military medicine is characterized by battlefield injuries and the unique resources available (or not available) to medical professionals. Due to these factors, many problems that exist in the medical domain at large can also be present in far more acute forms in the military environment.

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are important tools to address the problems arising from military and veteran healthcare, and thus this Research Topic will focus on all aspects of AR and VR in this environment. In particular, AR can be used to train medical professionals in the practice of medicine during wartime and with wartime resources, as well as the usage of wearable AR in active treatment and rehabilitation.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:
Training
- Medical part-task trainers
- Combat medic training
- Measuring training effectiveness in medical applications
- Experiential learning
- Medical education including clinical communication skills, examination skills, emotional support
- Reflective practice and training evaluation
- Decision making in medical simulation and healthcare
- Mentorship and preceptorship
- Practice of soft skills/communication (bedside manners and across teams)
In-field applications
- Telemedicine/Tele-nursing Wearable/AR applications in healthcare
- Hospital safety
- Battlefield trauma applications
- VR for patients who did not grow up with computers
Rehabilitation
- Applications for pain management, relaxation, mindfulness
- Chronic and acute pain management both at a facility and at-home
- Mental health applications including treatment of phobias and PTSD
- Military Sexual Trauma

Keywords: Medical training, Telemedicine, Training effectiveness, Mental health, Combat medic training

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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