You Asked, We Delivered: Exactly What Can You Expect From Our New Update? (Think Moulage, Skin Conditions, Interventions, Grading and More!)

You Asked, We Delivered: Exactly What Can You Expect From Our New Update? (Think Moulage, Skin Conditions, Interventions, Grading and More!)

 

A major update to the already great VRpatients is coming out soon. 

“We listen to everyone who gives us input, then we sit down and prioritize the input as a team, and determine how many requests we have received from customers for a particular item,” explains Tom Cox, a former paramedic and training director who is now the Director of EMS sales for VRpatients.

So, what can you expect? The new update will include:

  • More realism.
  • New interventions.
  • A dialogue system.
  • A grading timeline.
  • More case flexibility.

National accreditation and testing entities are recognizing the benefits of using virtual reality in training. 

“Use of simulation improves the student’s ability to see a wide variety of patients and the new features that we’re adding allows the patients to be more lifelike, opening up the ability to allow a student to see a wider array of patient conditions,” says Duane Ginder, an experienced EMS worker, educator, and manager who serves as an EMS subject matter expert for VRpatients. Ginder does much of the onboarding and training for customers. 

 

More Realism

It’s important to expose students and trainees to realistic situations. 

In this new release, VRpatients added several conditions to the already robust training options, including traumatic injuries and moulage.

“Trauma and moulage was a big customer ask. During our initial rollout, we didn’t add that ability at all. Now we’re adding more than 2,800 art assets for trauma and moulage,” Ginder says. “Instructors can add these elements to different parts of the body. It’s a huge improvement for students to be able to see something instead of an instructor just asking them to imagine it.” 

Expect to see in the new release:

  • Gastric Distention
  • Epistaxis
  • Bleeding Mouth  
  • Burns: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th degree
  • Bruising
  • Avulsions
  • Gunshot wound
  • Stabbing
  • Closed Fractures 
  • Lacerations
  • Visible Track Marks
  • Angioedema (Swollen Lips & Tongue)
  • Otorrhea (Ear Discharge)

Customers also asked for more realism in skin conditions. 

“The ability to give the patients more lifelike skin changes when conditions present them gives students the ability to see patients as jaundice or pale and be able to recognize that and test them on those things,” Ginder says. “They can actually see what that looks like on a patient so you don’t just have an instructor saying, ‘your manikin or your patient is pale’ and the medic doesn’t see those physiological changes. This is what really separates VRpatients and virtual reality training from a static manikin laying on the floor.”

Some skin conditions included in the new release are:

  • Edema
  • Paleness
  • Diaphoresis
  • Flushed
  • Mottled
  • Jaundice

 

Interventions

The addition of new interventions in the latest update will broaden the options for students as they assess, treat and diagnose patients.

New interventions include:

  • Dressings
  • Tourniquets 
  • Bandages
  • Splints

“Since we added trauma and all the injuries of the body, we had to add interventions so the medic or user could treat those injuries appropriately,” Ginder explains. “We had to pair our interventions list and our injuries to make sure we had sufficient coverage of those items.”

Students will also be able to palpate pulse and make spinal assessments.

“You can actually use the mouse to determine what various pulse points across the body are and whether they’re strong or weak and so on. I don’t know of any other program out there that lets you do that. I don’t know of any other program that lets you assess every piece of the spine,” Cox says. “This is something that took a lot of development to add something that we didn’t have before.”

Exposing students to things they might not have seen before prepares them for the realities traumatic situations can present. 

“This upgrade opens up brand new doors around assessment and treatment of traumatic things where we’ve been focusing on medical injuries and medical conditions before,” Cox says. “It just offers so much more of what everyday EMS personnel encounter. That’s what medics do every day. They see a wide variety of cases and that’s what VRpatients is that nobody else has. It’s a wide variety of possibilities.”

Units of Measurement

Not only is it important for students and trainees to know which drugs to give to patients, it’s also imperative for them to know the proper dosage and methods for administration.

“I think the thing that will have the most impact will be the units of measurement that we’ve added to our medication administration,” Ginder says. “Being an EMS director who had to sit across the table and tell a family member the medic made a mediation error on their loved one is horrible and something I would like to prevent.”

 

Grading Timeline

While it’s important for students to make decisions and practice cases repeatedly, it is also necessary for instructors to see how quickly their students come to their decisions. 

The new update includes a grading timeline where instructors can see exactly what the student did and how long it took them to do it.

“Knowing when to do something is often more important than just simply how to do it,” Ginder explains, adding the new update will allow instructors to discuss the timing of actions with students, improving the capabilities of the training scenarios.

“With the grading timeline now included, instructors can get a better idea of what the student was thinking when they made the decision to do what they did.”

There is also more flexibility with cases and case authoring so instructors can more accurately assess every student’s strengths and weaknesses and customize cases accordingly. 

“With all of these new additions, we’re increasing the number of situations you can put medics in to test and asses their critical thinking skills,” Ginder says. “The user can experience and see the benefits of the treatments that they have provided as well as the decline in a patient if they haven’t made correct choices.”

 

Dialogue System

Knowing when to ask for help is an important part of training. The improved dialogue system in the new update allows students to ask for additional resources.

“Talking to the patient is great for assessing the patient, but there are other forms of communication that might need to happen during the case,” Cox explains. “For example, you need more information from somebody, or you need to talk to dispatch, or you need to talk to the hospital because you have an extenuating circumstance. With this upgrade, you will be able to add communications in with up to seven different communication routes, which is something that hasn’t been an option before. So now you can have more realism to the case.”

Also, the new update has more than just one way communication between the medic and patient. In previous versions, the responder could ask the patients questions, but the patient could not offer up unsolicited information.

“In real cases, a patient may offer information without being prompted and we’ve added that ability into the VRpatients platform,” Ginder says. 

Cox adds that sometimes a patient might tell the responder to get away. This new feature will help students practice how to best respond to situations like this. 

He says all of these updates will hopefully make students better prepared for what they might actually do on the job. 

“It’s quite different when you see it in real life for the first time. We’re able to present an array of injuries that you can’t really simulate with a manikin, allowing trainees to react in a virtual space instead of in someone’s home.”

If you’re ready to check out the VRpatients software, schedule a demo today.