COVID hit U.S. higher education budgets hard. Already lean from recession cuts, two- and four-year institutions had to cope with the fallout of millions of lost revenue dollars each. More costly and space-intensive programs such as simulation centers were especially hard hit, as campus closures rendered them essentially useless during lockdown.

Now, there is new hope on the horizon in the form of the $81.88 billion dollar aid package known as HEERF II. Read on for a guide to what this funding means for you and your institution. The deadline to apply is April 15, 2021.

The healthcare industry is  at a watershed moment for extended reality (XR). Just as cell phones evolved from 2.5-pound behemoths to ubiquitous pocket-size devices, we see XR as moving from an experimental novelty to a cutting-edge tool to an everyday necessity for clinical practice.

Looking to learn more about extended reality (XR)? Wondering what it really has to offer in healthcare training and medical education?

Join GIGXR’s Garry Putland for an interactive interview on Tuesday, February 9th at 11:00PM to 11:20PM CET / 5:00 PM to 5:20 EST. See how XR broadens access to key elements of simulation training as part of the 24 hour Holographic Surgery virtual event presented by Microsoft.

Today’s students have the advantage of technology that enables them to gain more skills in a no-risk environment before they head out in the real world and to have tools that aid them in diagnostics and monitoring.

However, those educational aids don’t train medical staff in how to respond to a patient who, say, is facing a difficult diagnosis, or how to read a patient’s face and movements to assess pain levels.

While high-tech manikins can help students improve their interpersonal skills by simulating a real patient, standardized patients (SP), or patient actors, have become the gold standard in helping students master this key area of their learning.

Even in a world where more workplaces are allowing for remote work, higher education has remained mostly an on-campus effort. 

State-of-the-art simulation labs, combining use of manikins, computed-based simulation and task trainers bring a plethora of tools under one roof. That’s especially important as simulation can now account for up to 50% of clinical hours required for graduation, at least in the U.S. and growing in other parts of the world. 

GIGXR recently demonstrated remote capabilities for instructor-led simulation training, scaling access of holographic standardized patients to help students meet clinical training requirements. 

If you want to add immersive learning to your curriculum or want to upgrade from Virtual Reality (VR) or Augmented Reality (AR) options, you may have to justify the investment in Extended Reality (XR) and Mixed Reality (MR) devices. 

This might be particularly challenging heading into 2021, as universities cope with the financial fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. 

For instructors and students in healthcare fields, though, the investment in XR pays off in both quality of education and a favorable cost-benefit analysis when compared to other types of simulation teaching and training.

During the spring semester, many academic institutions felt comfortable planning towards in-person learning in the fall. Spikes in the COVID-19 pandemic forced many of them to reevaluate, creating challenges for teachers and students across all disciplines. 

Textbooks, manikins, videos and conventional computer-based programming only go so far when preparing nursing students for real-life patients and situations. Immersive learning addresses some of those shortcomings by working in highly realistic scenarios. 

GIGXR’s HoloPatient utilizes volumetric video capture of standardized patient actors to create an extended reality (XR) application that allows instructors to simulate a variety of pathologies and states of decline. HoloHuman is a 3D anatomy model that lets students look at 4500 different anatomical structures.

In today’s ultra-connected world, we’re used to having Zoom conversations with family and colleagues, opening Spotify to check out artists from around the world and using Google Translate to access content in any language.

Concerts and sporting events are among the few events that still bring large crowds together — as in up to 100,000 people — to share space, energy, camaraderie and just fun. Analog has been the way to go for most consumers, even as avant-garde companies started to experiment with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). After all, it’s the atmosphere of being with fellow fans that you can’t recreate effectively at home.

With more and more students facing uncertainties around tuition for online courses and the remote learning environments as we embark on the Fall 2020 school year, how can educators, particularly in fields that require off-the-page educational experiences (such as medicine) deliver an improved student experience? 

Dane Axelgard, VP Sales, North America at GIGXR, outlined how and why immersive learning is more vital than ever for healthcare training in 2020 in his presentation for the “Your Guide to Virtual Reality Healthcare Applications, Products and Services” virtual conference, co-hosted by IVRHA and BehaVR this past month.