How Technology is Changing Healthcare Education

Who Uses VR and AR?

When it comes to the use of VR and AR in healthcare and healthcare education, the uses are practically endless. A physical therapist might use Neuro Rehab VR to develop training exercises with machine learning to tailor each exercise to a patients’ unique needs. Alternatively, a surgeon could utilize VR, such as Surgical Theater, to explore and interact with a 3D model to plan safe and effective surgeries. Healthcare professionals can even use VR and AR to better understand and empathize with their patients. Embodied Labs uses VR to simulate what it’s like to live with certain health conditions, such as macular degeneration or hearing loss, giving providers the chance to put themselves in a patient’s shoes.

How Are VR and AR Impacting Health Education?

With this advanced technology and its ability to generate real-life scenarios in the virtual environment, online healthcare students can get a fully immersive training experience before they enter a hands-on patient scenario, such as a surgical residency in med school. In addition to the hands-on skill development, students in the VR and AR environments can also work on developing mental agility and decision-making skills that were previously only learned while on the job, especially in a trauma or emergency room situation. Today, the tech-heavy classroom better prepares you to handle stressful situations and ultimately offer a higher level of patient care than ever before.

Resources to Learn More

• Elara: This company develops the latest tech for many healthcare scenarios by blending interactive solutions, 3-D animation, and VR. Elara focuses specifically on creating training and education products.
• How You Can Leverage the Benefits of Virtual Reality in Education: This article offers some additional perspective on how VR and AR technology benefits learners and teachers in healthcare. It details the various benefits from content retention and skill development to creativity boosts and overcoming traditional on-campus requirements.
• How VR is Changing Healthcare Education and Training: Latest News: This article compiles numerous recent articles that chronicle recent developments in healthcare education as a result of VR technology.
• How Virtual Training is Set to Change Nursing Education: This online magazine shows how tech is changing the way we learn, especially during 2020’s coronavirus pandemic.
• Future or Fad? Virtual Reality in Medical Education: AAMC weighs the pros and cons of recent tech developments for healthcare students and its uses in the classroom.

Who Uses Wearable/Portable Technologies?

Wearable technologies are becoming more common for healthcare providers to use while treating patients. There are some wearable technologies that providers send home with patients to help them better monitor their health, assist in at-home activities such as physical therapy, and to make detailed readings and measurements remotely.

Alternatively, healthcare educators are using these technologies in the classroom and clinical training environments. Some schools have been using technologies like Google Glass to broadcast the first-person point of view of one procedure to a classroom full of students on campus or online.

How Are Wearable/Portable Technologies Impacting Health Education?

In an interview with AAMC, Dr. Warren Wiechmann championed wearable technology in educational settings, saying that it “gives students and learners and even patients this unique perspective that they could never really have by having a first-person camera view into the medical world. Whether it’s procedure, lecture, or skin lesion, or even just an interview with a patient, it provides a unique opportunity . . . and there’s a lot of possibilities that could be very useful.”

In educational settings, wearable technologies have been placed on patients to allow instructors to see how medical students respond to and interact with them. Instructors can help learners analyze their speech patterns, word choices, levels of emotion and empathy, and other aspects the patient-doctor bedside manner. This new technology offers a great way for students to learn from their missteps or triumphs in both real and simulated settings unlike ever before.

Resources to Learn More

• Increasing Patient Engagement Through the Use of Wearable Technology: This journal article addresses the pros and cons of wearable technology in the nursing sector, including privacy and security issues, the digital divide among its users, and overall sustainability.
• A Review of Wearable Technology in Medicine: This article covers a wide range of devices by name, listing their uses, benefits, and drawbacks. It also speaks to the uses of several devices in clinical training settings.
• Wearable Technology Guidance: UW offers a comprehensive look at the uses of these technologies in patient care and educational scenarios.
• Wearable Technology in Nursing: Pressacademia highlights the uses of wearable technology in clinical settings for nurses, as well as patient-worn devices for monitoring their health and progress.
• Google Glass in Nursing Education: This is an in-depth investigation of wearable technologies and Google Glass as it pertains to nursing and patient care.

Who Uses Digital Health & Telehealth Technologies?

Digital health and telehealth technologies are being used by students and professionals to receive training in their area of the field and to treat patients remotely. In this way, healthcare education and the range of services available has greatly increased over the last few years. For example, it used to be quite difficult for rural patients to access healthcare and retain healthcare professionals in the rural areas they live in. Telehealth technologies are working on both fronts, helping more people get the care they need. Furthermore, non-traditional students living off-campus now have much easier access to learning materials typically reserved for on-campus learners.

How Are Digital Health & Telehealth Technologies Impacting Health Education?

For students, whether through synchronous or asynchronous coursework, distance education and telehealth have made it easier and more affordable for more young professionals to receive training across the healthcare field. Digital health and telehealth are such a significant part of the healthcare field today that colleges and universities often require their students to complete telehealth technology-focused coursework as part of the standard curriculum. Especially for learners studying pathology and radiology, the digital transfer and sharing of health documents and x-rays have been extremely useful for both students and working healthcare professionals.

Resources to Learn More

• The Case for Integrating Telemedicine Education into Medical Curriculums: This article highlights the advantages of more schools incorporating telehealth-related training into their curricula.
• Training Clinicians with Telehealth: HRS articulates how important it is for prospective healthcare workers to learn from and be ready to use telehealth technologies.
• Telehealth Education and Training: UVA provides some information on how they approach telehealth and distance education with this informative outline.
• Health Resources and Services Administration: Telehealth Programs: The HRSA website includes links to a robust collection of active telehealth programs and initiatives around the U.S., including information on rural programs.
• From Bedside to Webside: Future Doctors Learn How to Practice Remotely: This article describes the experiences of online healthcare students working with telehealth programs through Cornell University, George Washington University, and the University of Arizona.

Who Uses Robotics?

Robotics are used widely by practicing healthcare providers, including doctors and nurses in the clinical setting, as well as by educators at colleges and universities. Since the use of robotics can help clinical facilities improve patient care, reduce waste, and often save on overall costs incurred by a facility, healthcare providers today are actively taking advantage of robotics assistance, from the operating table to the administrative offices.

How Is Robotics Impacting Health Education?

Robotic technologies are changing how students and professionals learn to take care of their patients. From learning about the practical side to patient care, healthcare students are about to get a more authentic hands-on experience with robotics without putting a human’s well-being at risk.

Additionally, robotics has been useful for training purposes. Schools like Duquesne University are employing robotics in the classroom that serve as “the eyes, ears, and mouthpiece for students and faculty who cannot participate in person.” Similarly, Bunker Hill Community College uses a pediatric robot to simulate real-life scenarios commonly encountered by nursing professionals. The robot is controlled by the instructor who can incorporate just about any kind of change or challenge at the press of a button to help better prepare students for the real thing.

Resources to Learn More

• Medical Device Network: This article provides some detailed information on the four types of robotics used in the field.
• Duquesne University: Robotics in Nursing: The university provides detailed descriptions here of common robotics technologies that it uses to train its nursing students and how they improve the quality of remote learning and hands-on experiences.
• Journal of the Society of Laparoscopic and Robotic Surgeons: Robotic Systems and Surgical Education: This article details a study on how efficiently robotics help surgeons learn various techniques.
• Interesting Engineering: 15 Medical Robots That Are Changing The World: Interesting Engineering provides a closer look at some of the most impactful robotics in the healthcare field and beyond.
• From Surgeries to Keeping the Company: The Place of Robots in Healthcare: You can get some further insight into how some of the more popular robots function in clinical spaces here.

Who Uses Remote Health Monitoring?

One of the best things about remote health monitoring is that it bridges the gap between traditional healthcare settings and the patient’s home. Technological developments in this area ultimately allow healthcare providers to extend the duration and reach of their services since they don’t have to be with a patient physically to help them in many scenarios. These technologies have proven extremely useful during the coronavirus pandemic, as well.

How Is Remote Health Monitoring Impacting Health Education?

A particular advantage of remote health monitoring in education is the fact that healthcare students and patients can now learn a great deal from the data collected by advanced monitoring systems. Working healthcare professionals and instructors can provide students with the data they need to gain a better understanding of the effectiveness of treatments regardless of the student’s location. Patients also learn about how their habits, lifestyle, and environments affect their health, the effectiveness of their treatment plans, and general mobility. Data collected through these remote health monitoring systems is also easily shared and put into quantified, easy-to-digest materials for both students and patients.

Resources to Learn More

• Remote Patient Monitoring: A Comprehensive Study: This article discusses the advantages of remote monitoring and how students and instructors can benefit from real-time updates.
• Basics of Remote Patient Management: This 16-minute free course explores the differences and overlapping areas between telehealth and remote patient management.
• 11 Lessons We’ve Learned From Remote Patient Monitoring: While this article is written from the perspective of a healthcare provider, students can also benefit from these 11 valuable points.
• Harvard Medical School: The Mother of Invention: This article addresses the expansion of the school’s remote learning and teaching platform, including remote health monitoring, telehealth, and more.
• Pros and Cons of Remote Patient Monitoring: Here you can learn more about the advantages of this growing technology as well as some of the issues that patients and healthcare providers have encountered with it.

Who Uses Artificial Intelligence?

Depending on the type of AI we’re talking about, it can be used quite expansively across the healthcare field. Neurologists, radiologists, ultrasound technicians, pathologists, nurses in the ICU, immunologists, researchers, and many more have found AI technology useful in their patient-facing or research-driven roles. AI technology often works in tandem with other recent developments in healthcare technology, including wearable devices, analytics, robotics, and telehealth.

How Is Artificial Intelligence Impacting Health Education?

Only within the last few years have medical schools started to address the need for more training in AI before students graduate. Schools including Duke University, the University of Florida, Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the University of Virginia, and the Sharon Lund Medical Intelligence and Innovation Institute have developed strong initiatives, including group projects, lab work, and specialized courses to meet this need. For the most part, more schools today are recognizing the need to further integrate more traditional, memorization-based learning with courses that explore or use new technologies and AI.

A report on AI by Ketan Paranjape and four other medical professionals states that “Some of the time that was originally spent on memorizing medical information will now have to be devoted to other skills. This will have a major impact on the way students and residents will experience their training. The system has to change in such a way that competence will no longer be judged based on factual knowledge but rather on communication skills, emotional intelligence, and knowledge on how to use computers.”

Resources to Learn More

• Role of Robotics and AI for the Future of Medical Education: This article sheds light on the value of training students in AI and robotics technologies to better prepare for their careers.
• The Potential for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: You can learn more here about the value of AI in healthcare, as well as more information on the human vs. AI performance in the healthcare debate.
• Introducing Artificial Intelligence Training in Medical Education: This article illustrates the need for medical professionals to understand and use technologies, including AI, to help them take advantage of the vast amount of information being collected in the field today.
• Top Artificial Intelligence Companies in Healthcare to Keep and Eye On: The Medical Futurist shows some of the top players in AI technology development and how it will impact healthcare practices in the near future.
• The Growth of Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: You can learn more here about the applications of AI in the field, including targeted diagnostics, major disease studies, and telehealth.

Who Uses Computer-Assisted Learning?

Healthcare students, professors, and practicing medical professionals all benefit from CAL technologies, even if they have different goals. Students are often learning and practicing various topics for school for the first time while professors and working professionals may be learning new techniques, keeping up with the latest developments in their field, or working to improve CAL technologies in some capacity. Along with CAL comes flexibility, which learners and professionals can take advantage of from just about any location with a wifi signal. Educators also utilize CAL for medical informatics curricula, computerized administrative databases, and computer-assisted instruction.

How Is Computer-Assisted Learning Impacting Health Education?

Colleges and universities can use various types of CAL to help their students develop a more nuanced understanding of healthcare topics, medical procedures, and more. Students and their instructors can receive immediate feedback on the learning process and progress of the task at hand. Since technology in healthcare is progressing so quickly, researchers have found that CAL has helped students learn essential knowledge and skills at a faster rate, especially in asynchronous, self-paced learning scenarios. Studies have also shown that CAL learning technologies that are available to healthcare students outside the classroom also make subsequent in-person and virtual classes more productive.

Resources to Learn More

• Computer Assisted Learning in Undergraduate Medical Education: Learn more here about the unique benefits of computer-assisted learning in the classroom for prospective healthcare professionals.
• Computers in Medical Education: This article explores the three uses of CAL in medical education, computer-assisted instruction, medical informatics curricula, and computerized administrative databases.
• Computer-Assisted Learning in Undergraduate and Postgraduate Rheumatology Education: You can learn more here about the advantages of CAL technologies in undergrad healthcare studies and its impact of student learning about rheumatology.
• The Development of a Computer-Assisted Learning Module in Physical Therapy: This journal article investigates how CAL supplements classroom instruction for learners focusing on physical therapy.
• Development of a Learning-Oriented Computer-Assisted Instruction Designed to Improve Skills in the Clinical Assessment of the Nutritional Status: This study shows the practicality of CAL and CAI (computer-assisted instruction) for prospective health professionals when assessing patient needs and treatment plans.

Who Uses Analytics?

From college professors and public health professionals to healthcare consultants and hospital administrators, healthcare analytics provides an excellent window into hospital management, facility costs, medical diagnoses, and patient records. Since this information is all in a digital format, healthcare professionals and students in training can take advantage of data visualization tools to make real-time, supportive decisions to improve healthcare and a facility’s operations.

How Is Analytics Impacting Health Education?

Since one of the features of analytics technology in healthcare is the convenient ways data can be compiled, displayed, and shared, analytics contributes greatly to the information college professors use in the classroom and clinical settings when training future healthcare professionals, researchers, and administrators. Especially for those learners who will work directly with patients or conduct academic research in the healthcare field, analytics is becoming a large component of the healthcare training format these days. Additionally, many colleges and universities now offer specific degree programs in healthcare analytics or closely related areas to better prepare students for tech-heavy healthcare careers.

Resources to Learn More

• Learning Analytics and Medical Education: This article details the growth and advantages of incorporating analytics into college curricula for healthcare students.
• Healthcare Big Data Analytics in Med School Marks Turning Point: Learn more about new components in medical education today as a result of analytics and in-demand tech here.
• University of South Dakota: Online Certificate in Healthcare Analytics: This site details the main topics a student might learn in an entry-level program focused on analytics.
• Dataversity: Why is Data Analytics Important in Healthcare?: This brief article makes concise points about how valuable analytics technology is in the healthcare field.
• More Medical Schools Teaching About Big Data, Healthcare Analytics: This article shows the importance of healthcare students learning how to utilize analytics while in school to better prepare for direct patient care and administrative roles.

• Learning and assessment improvements
  With the vast amount of data we can collect, process, and share today, healthcare students have more information at their fingertips than ever. With the recent technologies in healthcare informatics and other analytical specialties, instructors can compile this information into a digestible format for advanced, up-to-date learning opportunities. This is beneficial for several reasons, as it often comes from work with real patients and care facilities.
• Controlled environments with zero risk to human patients or participants
  Healthcare learners can get valuable hands-on experience with VR and AR simulations and robotics. These life-like virtual realities can better prepare you for the real thing after you’ve had enough practice.
• Realistic visualization
  Many steps beyond more traditional methods for learning healthcare topics, such as from a textbook or video instruction, technologies today offer wildly realistic, hands-on opportunities for students to advance their knowledge more quickly.
• Learner control of the educational experience
  Online healthcare students today can often engage in asynchronous learning formats. These experiences allow learners to move at their own pace and spend more time working on those subjects that challenge them.
• Repetition, repeatability, and practice
  In most learning scenarios, students can take advantage of the repeatability of these educational technologies. For example, many educational robotics are able to replicate a scenario over and over again, allowing healthcare students to practice treating particular issues by using multiple approaches over time.
• Learner behavior documentation and feedback
  CAL technologies, remote monitoring, and analytic technologies help healthcare students and their teachers better understand their progress and performance throughout their participation in a course or clinical training. Each student’s progress, strengths, and weaknesses can be immediately quantified and presented to instructors for constructive use in the educational process.
• Instruction tailored to individual or group needs
  Various learning technologies today, including CAL, give teachers the opportunities to supplement their in-person or online teaching materials in a way that serves their classroom. Whether one-on-one or in a group, students can receive more useful and time-efficient instruction than ever before.
• Enhance perceptual variation and improve skill coordination
  Along with the repeatability of these technologies, healthcare students can engage with learning modules that present a range of variations to one problem or procedure. As a result, learners are more adept at thinking on their feet, changing their approaches to meet a new challenge, and ultimately are better prepared to handle real-life situations.
• Standardization of instruction, assessment, and administrative tasks
  With these improvements in technology, educators and professors can develop and continually revise a standard approach to teaching their required courses, as well as a reliable system for assessing student progress, outcomes, and their feedback. Additionally, other professionals in healthcare, especially those in leadership or administrative roles, can take advantage of a standardized practice for training employees in the clinical setting, as well as develop tech-based systems that assist workers with daily tasks.

Q: What role does health-focused technology play on the teaching side of things for you for your online teaching? Is it part of everything you do or just to enhance the experience?

A: It plays an enormous role. The healthcare industry is rapidly evolving, and new technologies and approaches are at the forefront of our courses. For instance, the focus on next-generation analytics inclusive of artificial intelligence and machine learning has been a very important foundational layer within the healthcare data science discipline. We leverage environments, datasets, and develop algorithms that are designed to tackle some of the most pressing needs within the healthcare continuum. We discuss all the items above as they are no longer considered “future technology,” but rather, these are the technologies that healthcare organizations are leveraging every day.

Q: You have experience designing online curricula for nursing students using modern technology. What types of technologies are you using? Have your methods changed over time because of advancing technologies, tech issues, student suggestions, and other factors?

A: Most certainly. I’ve been online teaching for nearly a decade and so much has changed over time. Quite frankly, even a decade ago, online learning mainly focused on principles and concepts. What was lacking was an actual “hands-on” component most would be accustomed to through a traditional in-person format. The technology, security, and user experiences were simply not mature enough at the time. However, now I’m able to use advanced learning platforms, video conferencing software, virtual environments — all through a mobile-enabled framework. The experience is quite different than 10 years ago. I always try and keep on top of the latest tech to improve the learning experience for our students.

Q: Are technologies usually quite a bit different in the clinic setting than in the classroom? If so, how does technology help you provide nurses with remote clinical experiences that serve to replace in-person learning in more traditional formats?

A: Certainly, the experience will differ. I do think the gap is closing based on new tech. Although my focus is more on the healthcare IT side of things, I do know others are leveraging virtual reality and augmented reality to train physicians and nurses to perform complex medical procedures with greater accuracy. Such tools are particularly effective for collaborating with clinicians who are located in remote areas without access to a full range of conventional resources for performing surgeries or diagnosing patients. For example, students can use the technology to understand procedures, using step-by-step simulations to demonstrate exactly how they will perform a surgery. Augmented reality technology may be used to create virtual libraries that offer immediate access to detailed information about past medical procedures, allowing doctors and nurses to more precisely evaluate potential outcomes and risk factors when planning treatment options. These are just some of the examples of how we’ve come a long way with online learning. The tech that is available today and what will be available tomorrow will only further the comprehensive and immersive learning experience.

Q: Which technology has been the biggest game-changer for your students over the last couple of years? Why?

A: From the health analytics perspective, it is without a doubt the cloud environment. I’m able to create multiple virtual environments that can be remotely administered and accessed from anywhere in the world. It enables the inclusion of multiple platforms, databases, learning modules, and visualization software that can be scaled and rapidly deployed. In my opinion, without this technology, the popularity and value gained from online learning would be greatly diminished.

Q: What would you say to a prospective student who’s nervous about learning the essential career skills in an online environment rather than in the classroom (aside from the required clinical hours in-person)?

A: Ultimately, that decision depends on the individual. Your situation is unique and you must determine what is the best path. I can tell you that being nervous about the essential skills being lost from an online format is something not to worry about. The online learning format has come a long way and you will gain the necessary skills while building meaningful relationships throughout your journey. I chose the online format because it was ideal for me when I had to juggle personal and professional commitments. Technology has improved the experience considerably and the online learning format is certainly here to stay.