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Med Students Get Training In Second Life Hospitals
Hugh Pickens writes "Discover Magazine reports that although medical simulations have been around for a long time, medical schools like Imperial College London are starting to use virtual hospitals in Second Life so students can learn their way around an O.R. before they enter the real thing. The students can also test their knowledge in the Virtual Respiratory Ward by interviewing patient avatars, ordering tests, diagnosing problems, and recommending treatment. 'The real innovation in SL clinical simulations is that they bring people together in a clinical space — you are standing next to an avatar who is a real patient, and the doctor avatar to your right is a resident at Massachusetts General Hospital and the nurse to your left is at the University of Pennsylvania hospital,' says John Lester, the Education and Healthcare Market Developer at Linden Labs. The most significant benefit of SL training may be the cost. Real-life training facilities require thousands, and sometimes millions of dollars to build and maintain, while SL simulation rooms can be created for minimal costs, and accessed from anywhere in the world for the price of an internet connection. SL can also expose students to situations that a standard academic program can't duplicate: 'You can take risks that aren't safe in the real world and teach more complex subjects in three dimensions,' says Colleen Lin. 'When you're resuscitating a dummy in real life, it looks like a dummy. But you can program an avatar to look like it's choking or having a heart attack, and it looks more real to the student responsible for resuscitating it.'"
I am not a doctor but I have trained as on in Second Life.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
This should come in handy for doctors trained this way when a blue, eight-foot tall hermaphroditic troll shows up at a hospital emergency room complaining of chest pains.
The inevitable dialogue between totally overworked surgeons:
"Oh well that was his liver I just cut open not the stomach... let's reset this"
*awkward silence*
"Wait... Oh shit, well let's just tell his family there were some... unexpected complications right?"
What the Hell?
I can just see it now.
Doctor: My god, the patient's heart is lagging!
Nurse: Doctor! What are you talking about?! He's going into cardiac arrest!
Doctor: Nurse, check the Monster (tm) power cable on the heart rate monitor. I think I got the electron directionality device wrong.
Nurse: He needs to be defibrillated! Hurry!
Doctor: Screw that! I'm not going to pay a micro-transaction fee for such a crappy add-on!
Machine: beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep
So now when I feel sick I go to a SL hospital and have a real doc diagnose me.
"That chest pain you describe, is it burning? Yes... And it radiates into your left arm... ok... Say, do you feel dizzy or have a strange taste in your mouth? Hello? ... HELLO? Still there?"
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The NHS have found Theme Hospital to be a more accurate simulation.
You mean I actually have to walk in that crowd?