Advancing emergency medicine training with remote stereoscopic livestream technology

1 Abstract: Immertec's proprietary technology for streaming stereoscopic video along with timely 2 biomedical feeds is accelerating the translation of specialty knowledge to medical practice across 3 distances. Due to geographic and financial barriers, patients in underserved rural areas often lack 4 access to healthcare specialists or advanced medical equipment. To meet the need for specialty 5 care, general practitioners in rural communities can be trained by specialists to manage high-risk 6 medical emergencies or other procedures when specialists are not locally available. Training for rural 7 clinicians often involves travel to in-person courses, which is a logistical burden that taxes a 8 physician's time for patient care. Instead of traveling to onsite training, Immertec's technology 9 provides a live, immersive, distance training option for clinicians, connecting specialists in academic 10 centers with rural healthcare providers to bring evidence-based best practices to rural communities 11 more quickly. Immertec's patented method for the selective transmission of media content is used to 12 stream stereoscopic video with more efficiency to remote locations, allowing for synchronous 13 communication across distances. This method of streaming provides remote physicians with 14 immersive video of live procedures, real-time views of critical medical feeds, and ability to train or 15 collaborate with distant specialists as if physically present. During the NIH SBIR Phase I effort, 16 Immertec's software and user interface were developed and tested with physicians. After 17 development, the usability of Immertec's VR system was validated by subject matter experts (i.e., 18 attending physicians in Emergency Medicine [EM] and Obstetrics) who rated the technology an “A+” 19 grade on an industry benchmark usability scale. Following the confirmation of usability, EM resident 20 physicians were trained to manage an obstetrical emergency using Immertec's system. Phase II 21 expands on the previous effort through integration of additional VR-enabled features and 22 implementing Immertec's technology at a rural physician training program. In collaboration with the 23 University of South Florida's (USF) Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS), 24 Immertec's technology will be used to provide distance simulation training for two obstetrical 25 emergencies to a rural medical residency program. Results of the training will be compared to in- 26 person training at a second rural medical residency program (control group) comparing outcome 27 measures (i.e., knowledge, performance, confidence), setup cost, and participant time for rural 28 physicians. Success of this Phase II effort will show evidence that Immertec's technology is a more 29 efficient and cost-effective option for physician training, which can be used by medical device 30 companies for device-training and to meet the training needs of underserved rural communities.