-> Virtual Patients Project
We are working to develop highly-immersive virtual human (VH) interactions that will train health profession students (medical, nursing, and physician assistant) on communication and interpersonal skills. To train these skills, we have built an immersive virtual patient (VP) system that simulates a standardize patient (SP) encounter. These immersive VPs are highly interactive, 3D VHs.
In the
10-minute experiences, the student speaks, gestures, and can touch the VP to
practice a patient-doctor interview.
Over 450 medical, nursing, and physician assistant students, residents,
and physicians have used the system at three universities (UF, MCG, and Keele
University School of Pharmacy).
For more information: Virtual Patients 2-page flyer, video of interaction
Computer Science inquiries should be sent to Dr. Benjamin Lok (lok@cise.ufl.edu)
Medicine inquiries should be sent to Dr. D. Scott
Lind (dlind@mcg.edu)
|
A medical student interviews an immersive virtual patient |
November 2006 – Study @ MCG |
Ongoing Work
Mixed Reality Humans and Intimate Exams
For more information, please visit the Mixed Reality Humans webpage
Aaron
Kotranza has led the development of mixed reality humans. A Mixed reality human is a new type of
virtual human that allows touch between a human and a virtual human
character. We are working to develop
mixed reality human patients to allow medical profession students to practice
their communication and interpersonal skills during clinical examinations. Preliminary study results show that allowing
touch between the student and the virtual patient causes the student to use
touch to comfort the patient and to communicate in a more socially engaged manner. Mixed reality humans also enable the
simulation of intimate exams, such as breast and pelvic examinations. We are working to integrate mixed reality
intimate exams into the educational curriculum of medical students at MCG.
·
Kotranza, A., D.
Lind, C. Pugh, and B. Lok, “Virtual Human + Tangible Interface = Mixed Reality
Human. An Initial Exploration with a Virtual Breast Exam Patient” IEEE Virtual Reality 2008, March 8-12,
Reno, NV, 99-106. Best Paper Award, IEEE VR2008 [PDF]
·
A. Deladisma, M.
Gupta, A. Kotranza, J. Bittner, T. Imam, D. Swinson, R. Nesbit, B. Lok, C.
Pugh, D.S. Lind. "A Pilot Study to Integrate an Immersive Virtual Patient
with a Breast Complaint and Breast Exam Simulator into a Medical Student
Surgery Clerkship." Presented at Association
from Surgical Education Surgical Education Week 2008.
After-Action Reviews of Human-Virtual Human
Interactions
For more information, please visit the After-Action Reviews webpage
Andrew Raij has led the
development of IPSViz (Interpersonal Scenario Visualizer), a tool that enables
end-users to rapidly review, evaluate and get feedback on interactions with
virtual humans. IPSViz generates visualizations that allow students to review
medical communication skills, as well as verbal and non-verbal behavior. Skills
and behaviors represented in IPSViz include head gaze, body lean, interpersonal
distance, diction, rapport, listening, information-gathering, interrupting the
patient, and interview organization.
·
Raij, A., and B.
Lok, “IPSVIZ: An After-Action Review Tool for Human-Virtual Human Experiences” IEEE Virtual Reality 2008, March 8-12,
Reno, NV, 91-98. [PDF]
Racial Bias with Virtual Humans
Brent
Rossen is leading studies as to the degree that real world biases (e.g.
skin-tone or weight) are transferable to the virtual world. His work his shown that sub-conscious biases
are realized in the virtual world and these biases are detectable, measurable,
and correlated to psychological measures of bias. For example, in the two virtual humans below,
an African-American virtual patient was rated as having lower education and
lower income/health-insurance than the Caucasian virtual patient, despite the
experiences using the same scripts, animations, audio files, and 3D models
(with different textures).
Publications in submission
Immersion and Interface Impacts on Virtual Human
Interactions
For more information, please visit the Virtual Patients Software webpage
Kyle Johnsen has led the evaluation of how the display of the virtual human affects the interaction with a virtual human. Specifically, HMDs and monitors significantly alters self-perceptions of the interactions (further from observer ratings) than life-sized fish tank VR displays. Other components that have been studied include audio quality, wizard-of-oz techniques, and physical devices.
·
Johnsen, K. and
B. Lok, “An Evaluation of Immersive Displays for Virtual Human Experiences”
(short paper) IEEE Virtual Reality 2008,
March 8-12,
Soon to be published (Email if you want to be a part
of these projects):
- Large
scale visualizations of H-VH interactions, fast-iteration H-VH script
development, public space deployment of VH technology, and course
integration of VHs.
Team Members (52 people have
contributed to the Virtual Patients project)
|
PIs |
D. Scott Lind,
M.D., Professor and Chair of Surgical
Oncology, Benjamin Lok,
Ph.D., Assistant Professor, CISE, |
|
Co-PIs |
Adeline Deladisma, M.D., Resident, Surgical
Oncology, Diane Beck, PharmD., Professor, Pharmacy, Juan
Cendan, M.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery, Stephen
Chapman, Ph.D., Professor,
Pharmacy, |
|
Senior Personnel |
Luke Bracegirdle, B.S., IT Development Manager, Pharmacy, Richard Ferdig, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Education, Carole
Kimberlin, Ph.D., Professor, Pharmacy, Carla
Pugh, Ph.D., M.D., Assistant Professor, Surgery, Northwestern University Michael Robinson, Ph.D., Professor, Clinical & Health Psychology, |
|
Students |
Graduate
students: Kyle Johnsen, B.S., Aaron Kotranza, B.S., Andrew Raij, M.S., Brent Rossen,
B.S., Xiyong Wang, M.S., CISE, University of
Florida Undergraduates: Harold
Rodriguez, Anna
Vittone, CISE, University of
Florida Medical
students: Thomas Bernard, Jarrod
Craig, Mamta Gupta, Matthew Kalapurakal, Darren Mack, Christopher Oxendine, Hevil Shah, Sarah Szlam, Medical College of Georgia |
|
Alumni |
Jonathan Hernandez, M.D., Cyrus Harrison, M.S., CISE, Joshua Horton, B.S., CISE, Robert Dickerson, B.S., CISE, Rebecca Wells, B.S.,
CISE, |
|
Collaborators |
Josephine Albritton, M.D., J.B. Bittner, M.D.,
Marc Cohen, M.D., James Coverdill, Ph.D., Bonnie Dadig, EDD,
M.S., Lisa Daitch, PA-C, Margaret Duerson, Ph.D., J. Garrett Harper, M.D., Toufic Imam, M.D.,
Bayard Miller, M.D., Erick Messias,
M.D., Ph.D., Robert Nesbit, M.D.,
Mary Anne Park, R.N., Rebecca Pauly, M.D., Brenda Rosson, R.N.,
Lori Schumacher, Ph.D., Patricia Sodomka, FACHE, Amy Stevens, M.D.,
Dayna Swinson, R.N., Peggy Wagner, Ph.D., Sam Wang, M.D. |
Support
The following agencies have provided generous support of this
work:
Association
of Surgical Education, CESERT Grant, 2008-2010
National
Science Foundation (NSF Career
Development Award and REU Supplement),
2007-2012
Popular Media Coverage
February
17th, 2007 - Augusta
Chronicle