Novgorod State University students create VR simulator for practicing first aid skills

At Novgorod State University, students have developed a useful educational application, the skills of which can be useful to anyone in everyday life. We are talking about the VR simulator "Digital Double "First Aid". With its help, it is proposed to learn how to provide actions to save victims. The developers note: the functionality can be useful, including for future doctors.

The program offers the user a variety of scenarios: from a simple cut with severe bleeding to fainting and even a heart attack. Actions can be practiced in virtual reality as professionals would perform them in real life. The VR application offers to provide emergency assistance based on the system's prompts and medical protocols. After completing the game, the user receives feedback on how he completed the task.

"In the game, all hand movements are repeated in virtual reality. This reinforces the correct behavioral patterns in the memory of the trainees. Like in training, but not with a dummy, but in a realistic VR world, where you can make a mistake and replay the situation. And the more you practice, the higher the chance of saving someone's life in reality," says the leader of the development team, student Sergey ANTONOV.

The user needs to put on a VR headset, launch the game, and then he is transferred to a virtual reality where there is a victim. For example, a person fell off a bike, injured his knee, he is bleeding and there is a suspicion of a fracture. Using VR controllers, you need to interact with the environment, the first aid kit and the victim. According to the scenario, you first need to call an ambulance, then treat the wound, apply a bandage and a splint.

The system will evaluate the entire sequence and completeness of actions (starting with whether the user has provided all the necessary data to the ambulance, whether the splint was applied symmetrically; for how long, where and when the ice was applied, and so on). And will ultimately give a general assessment: which actions were performed correctly, which were not, what was missed. In case of errors, the scenario can be repeated.

The main difference between the program developed by Novgorod students and similar applications is that it is designed not only for future doctors and also covers the entire training cycle.

"The user does not simply perform the same actions, but gets into a realistic situation, makes mistakes, receives feedback and can repeat the scenario until successful completion. In addition, we are targeting a wide audience. Our VR application can be useful for students and schoolchildren as part of life safety and medical training. For medical personnel and volunteers - for practicing and repeating skills. For educational institutions and rescue services - for personnel training. For businesses - as part of corporate training in labor protection. And for ordinary citizens - as an interactive, understandable training course for general development. In the long term, the application can be adapted for the military, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, driving schools and security services," clarifies Sergey Antonov.

As of today, the developers have already prepared a prototype of the application. Basic scenarios for providing assistance in case of fainting, bleeding, heart attack have been implemented. It is possible to complete the game without hints (for advanced users).

The development has undergone a pilot test: in February of this year, medical students from Veliky Novgorod managed to study on this simulator.

The creators of the VR simulator plan to conduct large-scale testing of the product in educational institutions of the Novgorod region. And also add new scenarios: poisoning, accidents, drowning, getting burns.

Illustration from the NovSU telegram channel