1. Harnessing Augmented Reality and CT to Teach First-Year Medical Students Head and Neck Anatomy
- Author
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Joanna K. Weeks, Stephen Prouty, Jina Pakpoor, Neal A. Rubinstein, B. Park, Nicole J. Robinson, and Arun C. Nachiappan
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,business.product_category ,Recall ,Headset ,education ,Article ,Mixed reality ,Session (web analytics) ,030218 nuclear medicine & medical imaging ,Visualization ,Test (assessment) ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Laptop ,medicine ,Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and imaging ,Medical physics ,Augmented reality ,Psychology ,business - Abstract
RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Three-dimensional (3D) visualization has been shown to benefit new generations of medical students and physicians-in-training in a variety of contexts. However, there is limited research directly comparing student performance after using 3Dtools to those using two-dimensional (2D) screens. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A CT was performed on a donated cadaver and a 3D CT hologram was created. A total of 30 first-year medical students were randomly assigned into two groups to review head and neck anatomy in a teaching session that incorporated CT. The first group used an augmented reality headset, while the second group used a laptop screen. The students were administered a five-question anatomy test before and after the session. Two-tailed t-tests were used for statistical comparison of pretest and posttest performance within and between groups. A feedback survey was distributed for qualitative data. RESULTS: Pretest vs. posttest comparison of average percentage of questions answered correctly demonstrated both groups showing significant in-group improvement (p < 0.05), from 59% to 95% in the augmented reality group, and from 57% to 80% in the screen group. Between-group analysis indicated that posttest performance was significantly better in the augmented reality group (p = 0.022, effect size = 0.73). CONCLUSION: Immersive 3D visualization has the potential to improve short-term anatomic recall in the head and neck compared to traditional 2D screen-based review, as well as engage millennial learners to learn better in anatomy laboratory. Our findings may reflect additional benefit gained from the stereoscopic depth cues present in augmented reality-based visualization.
- Published
- 2020