3d Virtual Operating Room
3d-VOR is a collaborative and immersive Serious Game targeting various defects in healthcare inside the OR due to a communication failure between the surgeons, the nursing staff, the anaesthetics and the patient.
Context
Inside the operating room (OR), communication and anticipation are key for the patient's safety during and after the intervention. This is the context the project which offers a multi-professional in-service training to every stakeholder in the operating room, by means of a collaborative, immersive and realistic environment.
The game is centred on the effects of the communication between the surgeon, the nursing staff and the anaesthetics upon crisis prevention and risk management inside the OR (control procedures, patient checklist).
Features
Through 4 virtual surgery operations chosen on purpose (routine versus infrequent, benign versus vital, etc.) and carefully reenacted, the game explores the many reasons of a failure in the OR that can be related to a bad communication or be caused by an external event but not recovered due to a bad communication.
To ensure that the learners collectively understand why an incident in the OR would occur as the mere result of an ineffective communication or a conflict, an intelligent debriefing is proposed on the same manner as mortality morbidity conferences (MMC).
3d-VOR is still under development. The picture hereabove is an illustration of a prototype currently being experimented by a population of testers.
Academic Prototype
An academic prototype has been developped by the research group and interns, in order to implement and test innovative ideas regarding the collaborative interactions and the communication between several player. This prototype allows 3 players (+1 supervisor/trainer) to play at the same time and in real time, each player from their computer. It is not actually in 3d but offers to each player a pre-computed rendering of the scene from their respective point of view in the environment. The environment is yet fully interactive.
Contextual menus appear upon clicking on interactive items and let players interact with the objects/people. Pieces of information can be collected from the objects as well as the people (inquiries). Information is stored in the knowledge panel which stands for everything the player knowns about the scenario. Information can be collected, received or shared. Pieces of information may be contradictory because each of them reflect a frozen state in a dynamically changing environment.
The documents (patient record, checklist, etc.) have been accurately modelled for the game to demonstrate a high level of fidelity.
Collaborative decision making is a critical part of tha game. The decision panel allows each player to participate in the decision and use their knowledge to support their decision and/or try to change the opinion of their co-worker.
The academic prototype is still under evaluation but some of its features have already been validated and published.