Orthopedic Research and Reviews (Aug 2020)
Virtual Reality and Physical Models in Undergraduate Orthopaedic Education: A Modified Randomised Crossover Trial
Abstract
Glen Wilson,1 Alexander Zargaran,2 Ilya Kokotkin,1 Jared Bhaskar,3 David Zargaran,3 Alex Trompeter4 1Department of Medicine, St George’s, University of London, London, UK; 2Department of Medicine, King’s College London, London, UK; 3Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK; 4Department of Trauma & Orthopaedic Surgery, St George’s Hospital, London, UKCorrespondence: Alexander ZargaranKing’s College London, Guy’s Campus, Great Maze Pond, London SE1 1UL, UKTel +44 2071887188Email [email protected]: Orthopaedic surgery is underrepresented in the United Kingdom medical school curriculum, with an average of less than 3 weeks of exposure over the five-year degree. This study evaluates the effectiveness of high-fidelity virtual reality (VR) and physical model simulation in teaching undergraduate orthopaedic concepts.Methods: A modified randomised crossover trial was used. Forty-nine students were randomly allocated to two groups, with thirty-three finishing the six-week follow-up assessment. All undergraduate medical students were eligible for inclusion. Both groups were given introductory lectures, before completing a pre-test with questions on the principles of fracture fixation and osteotomy. Each group then received a lecture on these topics with the same content, but one was delivered with VR and the other with physical models. Both groups completed the post-course assessments. Knowledge was assessed by way of questionnaire immediately before, immediately after, and six-weeks after.Results: In the VR group, participants improved their post-training score by 192.1% (U=32; p< 0.00001). In the physical models group, participants improved their post-training scores by 163.1% (U=8.5; p< 0.00001). Overall, there was no statistically significant difference in the total means of post-training test scores between the VR and the physical models study groups (U=260.5; p=0.4354).Conclusion: Both VR and physical models represent valuable educational adjuncts for the undergraduate medical curriculum. Both have demonstrated improvements in immediate and long-term knowledge retention of key orthopaedic concepts.Keywords: orthopaedic surgery, simulation, undergraduate, surgical training, virtual reality, learning curve
