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Stephen Barnes delivered a workshop on ‘VR and Health’ as part of the Sigma 6th Biennial European Conference at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. This conference brought together leaders in nursing and midwifery across diverse healthcare settings and the community for the purpose of showcasing cutting edge research and clinical practice initiatives in the area of sustainable health systems and practices with global reach and local impact.
As part of the aforementioned workshop, Walton Institute’s Stephen Barnes introduced attendees to Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) concepts and technology with particular emphasis on current and future initiatives into using VR as part of healthcare training and practices. This encompassed an overview of the growth of AR and VR adoption rates – for training and the healthcare industry in particular – as well as detailing: VR based surgical training platforms, AR and VR training tools for all staff including remote assistance and the use of Digital Twin for these applications. This also included video packages of the Mixed Reality and Digital Photogrammetry Testbed labs – both of which were funded by Enterprise Capital Calls in 2019 and 2021 respectively – and their outputs which would be of significant relevance to healthcare applications.
During the workshop, participants engaged in the healthcare training scenario designed and developed by Walton Institute’s AR/VR team which gave users a palpable immersive experience that delivered insight into the potential benefits of this platform as an education and training tool.