With the increasing adoption of immersive technologies in the industry, Texas Children’s AR/VR Best Practices Committee was recently formed to bring people from across the organization together to share, learn and advance responsible XR technology practices. The group is comprised of collaborators from Information Services, Nursing, Quality, Child Life, Texas Children’s Innovation Hub, Baylor College of Medicine’s CRIS (Center for Research, Innovation and Scholarship in Medical Education) and more.
What is XR?
Extended Reality (XR) is an umbrella term that covers virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). XR solutions have the potential to enable a variety of new modalities in health care – ranging from how physicians and other medical professionals are trained, to alleviating the pain and anxiety that patients experience in unfamiliar hospital settings.
Demo Day samples AR/VR technology
The committee hosted its first XR Demo Day last month on The Auxiliary Bridge, welcoming all to stop by to interact with VR headsets and learn how AR works. The event lasted several hours and saw participation from patients, clinicians and non-clinicians alike, many of which had never used AR or VR before.
“The goal of the event was to inspire and help facilitate innovation within the organization,” said Innovation Partner Sahreesh Ismail from the Entrepreneurship & Innovation department. “By bringing in different solutions to sample, we’re hoping to demonstrate just how widespread and transformative XR is going to be across all aspects of health care.”
There were five different solutions on display, including a VR application called MultiBrush used for physical therapy, art therapy and distraction therapy, and a demo of the Cisco Hologram that creates an AR experience to close the gap between virtual and in-person collaboration. Nursing Professional Development also provided demos of the central line dressing and sterile cap change modules they are piloting with the Oculus headset.
Participants had an opportunity to use voice commands using the Meta Quest 2 headset, virtually treating obstetric patients with hemorrhaging, shoulder dystocia, and other obstetric emergencies. They were also able to shoot basketball hoops and create fireworks behind the Statue of Liberty using AR.
“The XR technology being showcased provides a great overview for AR/VR applications in health care. I’m intrigued by these ongoing efforts to promote innovation and delighted to see people get so energized with the potentials of XR applications that optimize care and enhance patient experiences,” said Dr. Satid Thammasitboon. “This was such a great turnout and a big win for research, innovation and scholarship at Texas Children’s.”
The AR/VR Best Practices Committee will continue to forge a pathway for all XR use cases at Texas Children’s by promoting enterprise-wide adoptions and utilization of XR technologies that leapfrog existing methodologies for education, training and other use cases. The team plans to host another Demo Day for West Campus and The Woodlands later this year, and is set participate in the upcoming Professional Day Summit at Duncan NRI on Wednesday, April 19.
If you would like to participate in the committee or have an idea for AR/VR solutions, click here to reach the Entrepreneurship & Innovation team.
