Mixed reality, obstetrics and education at GEH

As Artificial Intelligence continues to become a very normal part of our lives, many of us have also noticed how this technology is becoming more and more common within our healthcare practices.

The Digital Hub (as you can imagine) is at the forefront of supporting departments to introduce technology like AI, and we were extremely excited when we were able to provide the opportunity for George Eliot Hospital to borrow and ultimately purchase a HoloLens AI headset. The HoloLens technology is a wearable holographic headset which enables the wearer to visualise digital information as holograms on top of the real world using Mixed Reality.

Well…I was very excited to be invited to go and visit the Midwife tutors and Medical Education team at the Education Centre to see first-hand how they have been using it and what an impact it has made to the education of their medical students.

A little context….

Undergraduate Medical Students from Warwick Medical School are using the HoloLens technology with its mixed reality capabilities to enable them to visualise the foetus in utero, and the mechanisms of labour until delivery. The HoloLens projects a hologram over a Gaumard birthing manikin named ‘Victoria’. This initiative is being used to supplement education and learning around normal vaginal delivery (NVD) as part of curriculum delivery while the students are on their placement.

The HoloLens enables the wearer to fully interact with their environment while at the same being able to view the holographic overlay that is projected onto the manikin. This allows the wearer to see the movements of the foetus as well as being aware of other factors within their environment including observing vital signs and interacting with ‘Victoria’.

My visit…

To be able to see the technology being used in this way and to support the medical students was awe inspiring. I had the opportunity to use the HoloLens and experience it as the students would. Whilst wearing it, I was able to see and interact with everyone around me, whilst when looking at the manikin I could see the holographic of the foetus projected over the top of it and its real time movements. It was amazing!   

The midwife tutors were very enthusiastic about the impact this technology is making for their students and in their research.

The opportunities this type of technology provides are endless, and being able to see how innovations continue to support the education of our future clinicians and improve patient care is what makes us do what we do at the Hub.

We can’t wait to see what the future has in store for the department, patients and the education of our clinicians of the future.

 Contributed by Jennifer Layton - Clinical Research Facilitator for the Digital Hub