Herts BLU Conference Presentation 170610

Rose Heaney Learning Technology Advisor

Jo Dawes Senior Lecturer, Physiotherapy

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Implementing a Manageable Second Life® Virtual Patient

system

School of Health and BioscienceUniversity of East London

Overview of presentation

UEL Context Why Second Life? The Virtual Patient Manageability Evaluation Future Conclusions

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Context

Healthcare programmes at UEL Podiatry Physiotherapy Herbal Medicine Acupuncture

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Herbal Medicine

Plant and medical sciences– Historically the right to primary diagnosis

Blended delivery – on campus for seminars & clinical training (500

hours) in Herbal Medicine clinic– home learning with on-line support for academic

component Students mostly p/t, mature, female, geographically

dispersed Staff mixture of p/t practitioners and UEL bioscience

staff

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Physiotherapy

Professional programme entitling graduates to become HPC registered Chartered Physiotherapists.

Combination of campus based and practice based learning.

Case based learning part of curriculum Cases presented as paper exercises.

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Common Issues

Difficult to recreate real life clinical experiences for students to learn from in the class room setting

Limited access to:– Real patients– Diverse range of conditions

Shortage of respiratory based clinical placements for the undergraduates

Safety – adequate preparation for meeting critically ill patients

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Possible Solutions

lifelike

simulations

PBL scenarios

interactive

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Second Life®

3D virtual world created by its residents who interact through avatars

Virtual World (VW) definition:A computer-generated display that allows or compels the user (or users) to have a sense of being present in an environment other than the one they are actually in, and to interact with that environment (Schroeder 1996, 2008)

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Technology spectrum

• Manageability – a key challengeR

VLE SL

Inspiration for Project

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UEL Virtual Lab

UEL Virtual Lab

Imperial Respiratory

Ward

Imperial Respiratory

Ward

St. George’s paramedic scenarios

St. George’s paramedic scenarios

Heart Murmur Sim

Heart Murmur Sim

SL Polyclinic

UEL HABitat island– Virtual Lab– Crime Scene House– Social space

Cash injection to develop along with other facilities (external developer)

Now maintained in-house

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http://vfc.uelconnect.org.uk/users/choong/output/5ae3a0a12.flv

Manageability (& Sustainability)

Same virtual patient model for physiotherapy and herbal medicine (and any other area e.g. podiatry)

Web based editor (connected to a database) where staff can add & modify textual case data

Reusable generic components – equipment and ward layouts, patient types, images, multimedia resources

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Phase 1 Manageability

Using simple web editor academic can: add patient dialogue (trigger words & responses) textual info for all items:

– Chart– Notes– Test results– Xray notes etc.

add / maintain quizzes (including images)

http://www.uelconnect.org.uk/2ndlife/R

Phase 2 Manageability

Academics could learn to do SL side work:

Connecting media to hotspots on patient Manipulating patient appearance and bay layout

using predefined patient sets in inventory Building & scripting will remain the preserve of

specialist but once infrastructure and library of reusable resources in place the need for this is minimised

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Student / staff experience - Herbal

11 in pilot (all levels), but others have also used it

Enthusiastic in the main– Surveys during orientation + online discussion

forum, reflective journals, focus groups Need more cases ‘Conversation’ with patient problematic Technical barriers on home PCs Staff – case development is not trivial

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Where next – Herbal?

More cases …differentiation Case building by experienced students A more holistic learning environment

(distance learners):– Dispensary– Herb garden– Tutorials– Staff ‘office hours’– Social spaces

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Student / Staff experience - Physio

Early phase of a qualitative study: to consider usability and acceptability

19 students volunteered to try SL out. Anecdote post orientation - enthusiasm and

eagerness Data collection: semi-structured interviews

with external researcher and “contextual analysis” of usability

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Where next - Physio?

This depends on outcome of study, but…

SL could become part of module teaching Use for preparation for clinical placement Use for revision Case building could be used as a learning tool

for more senior students

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However we need to .....

• Build a library of cases

• Develop patient dialogue

• “Admit” different patients to our clinic depending on cohort

Where next – more disciplines?

Podiatry in pipeline Visits by students of other institutions Collaborative ventures with other

institutions Inter disciplinary activities e.g. sputum

sample going to lab Prospective students

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Conclusions

Qualified success Manageability and sustainability key to

future developments Challenges cannot be ignored Collaborative potential

− Internally – shared experience of staff and students from different disciplines

− Externally with other institutions

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Thanks

Contact details

j.dawes@uel.ac.uk SL: Justina Dotterkelch

r.heaney@uel.ac.ukSL: Maisy Carter