Medical Training in Second Life Attending medical school in virtual reality

Medical Training in Second Life

December 21, 2007

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We’ve covered the growing health training focus in virtual worlds, particularly Second Life.

For the health professional who’s wondering about how medical training would work, there’s an excellent overview here.

As a health professional myself, I can see the benefits an immersive environment would bring. It won’t ever beat poring over a cadaver in real life but it’s going to be a greatly superior complement to real life training.

Update: the student version of the British Medical Journal is also running an article on medical training in Second Life

Written by Lowell Cremorne · Filed Under Health

http://www.metaversejournal.com/2007/12/21

Virtual doctors - medical training in Second Life

Written by Bertalan Meskó

Wednesday, 19 December 2007

http://juniordr.com/world

Attending medical school in virtual reality

Universities have been developing online learning facilities for doctors and medical students for many years. Now they are turning to the virtual world of Second Life, reports Daniel Stott

Intensive care unit in Second Life Not many lecturers would appreciate their students flying into lecture theatres dressed as cybergoths, but since September Coventry University has begun to encourage such behaviour. The university is pioneering a MSc course in clinical management that holds problem based learning groups for students in Second Life, an online virtual world. The course trains students in managing healthcare facilities and is the first healthcare course to use Second Life as a learning platform…There is some debate about whether spending money on virtual learning platforms is worthwhile, but some university marketing departments have already spotted the potential that having a virtual presence offers in terms of college branding and attracting future generations of computer literate and Second Life savvy students.

Hamish MacLeod, senior lecturer on the MSc in e-learning course at Edinburgh University explained, “I have had one or two inquiries about the masters course from prospective students who have made a point of visiting Holyrood Park [Edinburgh University’s Second Life campus] before getting in touch-a hint that Second Life can play a role in recruitment.”

How universities are using Second Life

The University of Nottingham is researching bullying. About 50 avatars have taken part in interviews monitored in Second Life by an occupational psychologist

The University of Plymouth and Thomas Jefferson University in the United States have developed a sex education zone featuring films about HIV and a stand with current sexual health news

Cornell University is conducting research into post-traumatic stress disorder, measuring the physiological responses of veterans of the Iraq war and previous Gulf war while participating in a virtual tour through a combat scenario

Imperial College, London, has a Second Life version of their real world Sir Alexander Fleming building, complete with teleport signs to the library and lecture theatres

Competing interests: None declared.

Provenance and peer review: Not commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.

Daniel Stott, medical student and freelance journalist,St George’s Medical School, University of London Email: danielstott@hotmail.com

http://student.bmj.com/issues/07/12/news/431.php