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Monday, June 23, 2008

Creating a Hospital in 3D to Explore Possibilities

Check out the operating room in 3D.


Here is an example of using a 3D world as a back drop for creating a video to highlight desired changes or to show a "What-If" scenario. As the article Virtual Worlds Case Study--Second Health states:

The explicit outcomes of the project were three videos, each portraying the way a medical situation would be handled under a wholly new system of healthcare — one based on the central idea of wellness as opposed to illness.

To that end, an entire hospital was built in Second Life that filled an entire sim. It was fully equipped, and included every manner of bed, gurney, and tool used by medical staff, including sophisticated diagnostic equipment from digital sonography to CAT scans and MRI suites; fully-equipped examination rooms, offices, and operating theaters; and suites for anesthesia, arthroscopic surgery, trauma, and cardiac catheterization.

Animations were created to simulate heart attacks, limps, and the ways in which care givers would interact with their patients. All the uniforms used by these care givers had to be precise, and instantly recognizable by residents in the UK. Of particular importance was to represent life in a contemporary city in the UK, and avatars had to be created to represent all manner of people, large and small, fit and not-so-fit, and representing a wide range of ethnic groups and races in both their form and clothing. The hospital continues to be used for medical and other training.




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3 comments:

Sharon said...

How did you use this? Did you have people in Second Life and conduct a tour for them?

Brett S. said...

I find this article really interesting as an educator. This idea of a virtual hospital is exactly why I was drawn to your class on Second Life in the first place. I'm constantly in contact with companies where their employees might be spread over vast distances or across shifts. I've had ideas to explore for a while regarding how to best create a conducive environment for training utilizing these new technologies. It was very interesting to learn about this virtual hospital. I can imagine the possibilities for this.

Anonymous said...

I've always wondered about the disconnect between doing something virtually and doing it in a traditional classroom setting. Basically, i'm wondering where the ROI is for an application such as a hospital in terms of hands-on items like surgeries. For instance, I think games such as Trauma Center on the DS are awesome because you are moving your body in a way that matches what you'd be doing in real life. In some virtual worlds, however, you are just walking around with a mouse and a keyboard. I do see the benefits, and understand that the problem of application has been one plaguing IDs for years, but I wonder about the significant investment for widescale simulations - couldn't we do the same thing, cheaper, by going back to the books? Is all of the money spent on building the world worth it, in terms of ROI?