Week 1 Tutorial – Introduction
Hi everyone,
I’m Farhan and I’m an MRI radiographer. Due to a security breached which resulted in patients’ details being leaked, all government and restructured hospitals are disconnected from the internet and only connected via intranet for official purposes only. As a radiographer, the closest example of network technology that we come across would be virtual reality as well as online conference (in current pandemic situations).
An example would be, in 2020, I had the opportunity of attending the AMEE conference that was held virtually from Edinburgh , since I was representing my instituition as a clinical educator. It was the first time that I had attended the AMEE and it was also the first time where the AMEE was conducted virtually, whereby we had created an avatar which allowed us to roam about the virtual exhibition hall and be able to interact with the different exhibits and listen to their presentation. In this case, network technology has a huge impact in delivering up to date knowledge and findings to the world in an efficient and fast manner.
From here, I think that if radiography has a developed virtual simulation system, similar to what surgeons practice on, it would greatly reduce the time taken for students to practice their techniques before actually meeting actual patients as this would allow them to develop the mental imaging training of how projections are done. However, it would be difficult for virtual reality or augmented reality to fully replicate actual real life practice and on actual patients as each patients are born and developed differently and come in different conditions which would affect the techniques required to provide diagnostic images for the clinicians and radiologists.
I think that the only form of techniogy that would I feel I have control over would be virtual reality as the program would follow a fixed set of commands and would not be able to deviate, whereas with respect to information that is readily available on the internet, it would be difficult to control such a thing as it is out there in the open and it is difficult to restrict users from not accessing such information.
Thanks,
Farhan
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Hi Farhan—can you remind us where you are based, please? Yours will be an interesting perspective for us to bear in mind on the course.
I was at AMEE – it was a strange experience using avatars to talk to people you know, or have heard of and not met! I guess it was quite engaging in some ways and technically challenging in others?
On virtual reality, I always think that the progress has been very slow after lots of hype a few decades ago, but perhaps it is finally going to emerge into the mainstream?
Tim
Hi Tim,
I’m based in Singapore.
AMEE took quite a while before I could get used to it. And it did feel weird for the time being, but I seldom interacted with anyone online. On the other hand, I felt that, it was a good first and interesting experience, but I suppose, the huge amount of data that is required to host such an event, caused quite a bit of lag, and it kind of hindered having a smooth experience, when the presentations kept hanging, every once in a while and that it took quite a while to move the avatar from point A to point B.
Yes, I too feel that the progress has slowed down since the announcement of Facebook acquiring Occulus and even in the gaming industry, there’s not a lot of progress in VR games as well, even with the high specifications of the consoles or desktops. Some examples that uses VR in simulations include InSimo, which basically runs simulation software for surgery which runs the simulations in real conditions and I thought that perhaps, this would be a good direction in developing a similar simulation for student radiographers to learn and practice radiographic techniques. It would probably take a few more years, before we can experience VR system similar to what has been described in “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline, which includes not just visual, but also sensory and motion immersion in the VR environment.
Farhan
Thanks Farhan. One issue I suppose is that the need for high-tech equipment will make roll-out very slow. With all of the different sensory inputs and outputs, it will be hard to keep costs down?
Hi Tim,
High tech equipment is definitely needed if we were to start rolling out VR simulation system for medical education, and with the current shortage of chips, due to bitcoin mining, it will definitely raise the prices of such equipment and obstruct the progress of such system. However, if we are able to make us of simpler technology such as PS Move or Xbox Motion technology or even Occulus, it might be an alternative to the high-tech equipment and reduce the cost, though it will probably require a more time in programming as we would need to program based on the VR equipment’s proprietary operating system and make sure that is compatible.
Farhan
Ah yes, I remember seeing some really interesting Nintendo Wii hacks a few years ago so I imagine much more could be done now piggybacking on the games industry.