A team from the UGM Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing chaired by Dr. Hanggoro Tri Rinonce and CV Creacle Studio have developed a virtual reality application to facilitate interprofessional education among health professions students at UGM (medicine, nursing, and health nutrition).
The app, which was launched on December 15, 2022, is called VRIPE-Health or Virtual Reality for Interprofessional Education on Health and enables collaboration among students to share knowledge, competencies, and decisions in caring for patients while keeping in mind their respective roles.
Interprofessional collaboration is essential in integrated healthcare, especially in hospitals. However, educational inequalities across professions, poor communication, and role misalignment are frequent barriers to implementation.
The lack of opportunities for students to practice collaborative services in clinics and the difficulty of organizing collaborative learning and patient care simultaneously also hinder interprofessional education.
With VRIPE-Health, students can experience the realistic handling of medical cases. The app mimics hospital conditions with three-dimensional VR models of the emergency room, intensive care unit (ICU), hospital environment, and medical equipment. Currently, the app provides simulations of pre-eclampsia/eclampsia and acute asthma.
“The doctor, nurse, and nutritionist avatars can be run in multiplayer, allowing students from each study program to collaborate on cases,” said Dr. Hanggoro on Tuesday (27/12).
According to Creacle Studio CEO R. Gathot Fajar Suryantoro, VRIPE-Health has undergone a usability test to see the user experience and an acceptance test to find out if the design and features are in sync.
“Students as users will face cases ranging from classifying ER patients with triage and initial treatment to consultation. Users will meet other users with different roles in the metaverse and carry out tasks according to their educational background,” said the CEO.
The VRIPE-Health app is expected to provide opportunities for students to practice interprofessional collaboration anytime, anywhere. They will learn how to educate, conduct examinations, assist in labor, and treat patients in intensive care with complete clinical equipment.
Author: Satria-Meilisa
Photo: Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing