Using Mixed Reality Headsets to Deliver Remote Bedside Teaching During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Feasibility Trial of HoloLens 2

Arun Sivananthan; Aurelien Gueroult; Geiske Zijlstra; Guy Martin; Aravindhan Baheerathan; Philip Pratt; Ara Darzi; Nisha Patel; James Kinross

doi:10.2196/35674

Using Mixed Reality Headsets to Deliver Remote Bedside Teaching During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Feasibility Trial of HoloLens 2

JMIR Form Res. 2022 May 17;6(5):e35674. doi: 10.2196/35674.

Authors

Arun Sivananthan^#^{1

2}, Aurelien Gueroult^#², Geiske Zijlstra³, Guy Martin⁴, Aravindhan Baheerathan⁵, Philip Pratt⁶, Ara Darzi¹, Nisha Patel^{1

2}, James Kinross⁴

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
² Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom.
³ Department of Academic Public Health, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
⁴ Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.
⁵ Department of Neurology, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, United Kingdom.
⁶ Medical iSight Corporation, London, United Kingdom.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 35389347
PMCID: PMC9116455
DOI: 10.2196/35674

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 has had a catastrophic impact in terms of human lives lost. Medical education has also been impacted as appropriately stringent infection control policies precluded medical trainees from attending clinical teaching. Lecture-based education has been easily transferred to a digital platform, but bedside teaching has not.

Objective: This study aims to assess the feasibility of using a mixed reality (MR) headset to deliver remote bedside teaching.

Methods: Two MR sessions were led by senior doctors wearing the HoloLens headset. The trainers selected patients requiring their specialist input. The headset allowed bidirectional audiovisual communication between the trainer and trainee doctors. Trainee doctor conceptions of bedside teaching, impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on bedside teaching, and the MR sessions were evaluated using pre- and postround questionnaires, using Likert scales. Data related to clinician exposure to at-risk patients and use of personal protective equipment (PPE) were collected.

Results: Prequestionnaire respondents (n=24) strongly agreed that bedside teaching is key to educating clinicians (median 7, IQR 6-7). Postsession questionnaires showed that, overall, users subjectively agreed the MR session was helpful to their learning (median 6, IQR 5.25-7) and that it was worthwhile (median 6, IQR 5.25-7). Mixed reality versus in-person teaching led to a 79.5% reduction in cumulative clinician exposure time and 83.3% reduction in PPE use.

Conclusions: This study is proof of principle that HoloLens can be used effectively to deliver clinical bedside teaching. This novel format confers significant advantages in terms of minimizing exposure of trainees to COVID-19, reducing PPE use, enabling larger attendance, and delivering convenient and accessible real-time clinical training.

Keywords: COVID-19; HoloLens; bedside teaching; digital education; e-learning; feasibility; medical education; medical student; mixed reality; personal protective equipment; protection; remote learning; virtual reality.

©Arun Sivananthan, Aurelien Gueroult, Geiske Zijlstra, Guy Martin, Aravindhan Baheerathan, Philip Pratt, Ara Darzi, Nisha Patel, James Kinross. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 17.05.2022.