About this Research Topic

Background

More than 1 billion jobs, almost one-third of all jobs worldwide, are likely to be transformed by technology in the next decade, according to OECD estimates. In addition, 5 billion people today lack access to proper surgical and anesthesia care and current training models cannot meet this demand. This growing need for continuous upskill and reskill becomes even more crucial in the post COVID-19 pandemic era. Virtual Reality (VR) and spatial computing technologies can pose as the next final frontier regarding medical psychomotor/cognitive training, education and empowerment. VR can provide the means for remote qualitative education (knowledge) and training (skills), using affordable technology with personalized, on-demand and smooth learning curves. Based on recent major advances in the field of neuroscience, "VR shares with our brain the same basic mechanism: embodied simulations", there is a new emerging field of medical VR psychomotor/cognitive education and training applications that can upskill or reskill trainees. They can facilitate continuous learning, provide curriculum programs and self-improvement opportunities that both expand medical professionals’ abilities as well as minimize skill gaps in their training. Such modern spatial computing applications are based on latest advances on real-time 3D graphics, computer vision, novel algebraic representations, simulation models, gamification, analytics, deep learning and 5G cloud edge computing, that allow intelligent education & training and further optimization/maximization of the desired learning outcomes.
The on-going research on how medical VR is affecting upskilling, reskilling and empowerment, takes place in multiple research domains outside Computer Science and Medicine, such as Neuroscience, Applied Mathematics, education and most of their subdomains that are affected by computation. The strong connection and skill transfer from the virtual to the real Operating Room is still a very active field of research and proper validation and standardized clinical trial protocols are just emerging.
We seek advancements and contributions in the topics below, but not limited to, that can prove they elevate medical training by providing novel research towards more effective, user-tailored empowerment, upskilling and reskilling in the post-pandemic world:
• Medical VR education and Experiential learning with VR
• Medical VR collaborative team training in the Operating Room or in Emergency scenarios
• VR Patient education methods
• Facilitated upskilling or reskilling for behavioral change, learning or social skills in VR
• Exposure therapy methods
• Spatial computing frameworks for user empowerment and medical education
• Clinical trials and protocols that measure skill transfer from VR to the real Operating Room or Emergency scenarios
• Educational frameworks to prove efficacy and time/cost reduction of VR methodologies over existing learning approaches

Keywords: medical virtual reality, virtual reality in industry, augmented reality, education, training, upskill, reskill, empowerment

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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