Cognizant and the University of Newcastle, Australia, Co-Innovate a Virtual Reality Solution to Transform Critical Neonatal Training
The VR Solution to Help Midwifery Students Learn Real-World Anatomy and Birthing Techniques in a Simulated Environment
Cognizant and the University of Newcastle (UON), Australia, one of the world’s top-ranked universities, have co-innovated a virtual reality (VR) solution to transform the way students learn key anatomy and birthing techniques, further reinforcing the University’s position as one of the leaders in the field.
The solution simulates a real-world delivery room, providing midwifery students with a virtual emergency neonatal resuscitation scene. A collaboration between UON’s School of Nursing & Midwifery and IT Services Innovation Team, this is the first of UON’s VR projects and makes it easier for new graduates to transition from performing a neonatal resuscitation in an educational setting to a real-world emergency room.
Utilizing the Samsung GearVR and HTC Vive (VR) and Oculus Rift headsets, the students can experience and imbibe vital and advanced neonatal resuscitation skills in a simulated environment.
Cognizant’s VR solution allows them to undertake a series of steps to pass the time-critical scenario, either with a virtual ‘helper’ in a practice mode, or individually in a formal test. As the simulation is easily accessible and portable, the students can study anywhere at any time. Run via an app developed for PC, iOS and Android, the technology is designed to maximize students’ learning experience by allowing them to train outside the classroom at their own pace.
“We are delighted with the outcome and co-innovation collaboration with Cognizant on this initiative. We were buoyed by the realization of the practical benefits of this solution, and enlightened by some of the unexpected impacts of the exercise” said Anthony Molinia, UON’s Chief Information Officer. “IT Services is motivated to explore further opportunities that immersive and interactive technology can deliver to the pedagogical experience for students at the University of Newcastle.”
“We are proud to have collaborated with the UON to develop a VR solution that marks a game-changing pedagogical innovation,” said Dr. John Burgin, Head of Digital Business for Asia Pacific at Cognizant. “The VR solution combines our extensive experience of working with leading colleges and universities globally, and our digital solutions capabilities that integrate human behavior insights, digital strategy, design services, analytics, and interactive content, to deliver an immersive student experience.
“By simulating a life-like compromised neonatal situation that requires students to execute critical procedures to stabilize and control an infant’s skin temperature, the solution will improve learning outcomes, as is already evident in the enhanced recall among students. Analytics capabilities built into the solution will provide the faculty with a better view of student readiness for highly critical procedures,” Burgin added.
In addition to the neonatal resuscitation simulation, Cognizant has also partnered with UON to develop a new AR resource to assist with education in anatomy and physiology, which requires extensive detailed knowledge of the human body, its make-up and functions.
Utilizing a HoloLens headset, which projects a hologram into the users’ actual surroundings, the team has developed a gender-changeable human form with interactive ‘layers’, which expose the different working functions of the body.
UON’s VR projects aim to fuse the separate parts of learning that students gain in theory, labs and work placement into a virtual simulation that lets them experience the pressure of life-or-death situations.
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Also Read/Watch:
University of Newcastle builds VR experiences to save babies’ lives
Midwifery students use virtual reality in training
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