V E TE R AN S AFFAI R S & M I LITARY M E D I CI N E O UTLO O K
SPONSORED BY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANACHAMPAIGN DEVELOPS INTERACTIVE MIXED REALITY SOFTWARE FOR SEPSIS DIAGNOSIS
n IT’S RARE TO FIND SOMEONE IN AMERICA whose life has not been impacted by sepsis, whether themselves or a loved one. Michelle Osborne, an employee of the University of Illinois, recalls her father passing away from sepsis in 2012: “The symptoms progressed so quickly that it was difficult for doctors to determine he had it until it was too late.” The same year in Central Illinois, 5-year-old Gabby Galbo died from sepsis from an undetected tick bite, prompting her parents to fight for legislation to develop evidence-based protocol for early recognition and treatment in statewide hospitals. “Gabby’s Law” was signed into effect by Governor Bruce Rauner in 2016 and has been followed by legislation in Ohio and Wisconsin. While sepsis can affect anyone, the very young and very old are often most at risk. In deployed field hospitals, soldiers with abdominal trauma and significant tissue loss are at greater risk of developing sepsis, according to an article published by BMJ Military Health in 2013. Collaboration efforts have led to a 16% decrease in mortality-associated sepsis since 2013 according to the CDC, yet the disease remains notoriously difficult to identify and treat quickly. The CDC estimates that at least 1.7 million adults in the United States annually develop sepsis, which is the body’s response to an infection. Sepsis can be difficult to diagnose and is often fatal if not treated in a timely manner. Out of those 1.7 million adults, nearly 270,000 die from sepsis: that’s nearly one out of every three patients who die in a hospital. Symptoms are ambiguous and can include a fever and chills, shortness
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Student’s view of Interactive Mixed Reality Trainer during simulation performed in summer 2019, showing the 360-degree video recording component. The simulated patient is a 35-year-old female complaining of fever after a recent surgery.
of breath, and high heart rate, progressing to cognitive impairment and organ shutdown. To improve sepsis outcomes, a new Interactive Mixed Reality (IMR) training tool has been developed by OSF HealthCare and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. IMR encompasses both virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), merging real and virtual worlds to produce new learning environments. This tool makes it easier for healthcare providers to diagnose by directing them through sepsis prevention protocol with a 360-degree video recording and annotation, proving the efficacy of new simulated environments in training novice medical professionals. “Simulation technologies such as virtual and augmented reality are becoming more common in medical training,” said T. Kesh Kesavadas, Director of the Health Care Engineering Systems Center (HCESC) at the University of Illinois. VR and AR are a major focus of HCESC, a research center that fosters collaboration between engineers and physicians. Other areas of focus for HCESC are surgical robotics, health data analytics, and smart health. Kesavadas states, “Our center is at the forefront of developing these technologies as well as software that makes it possible for faculty without programming skills to create IMR scenarios.”
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ALL IMAGES: HEALTH CARE ENGINEERING SYSTEMS CENTER AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, 2019
Virtual and Augmented Reality helps train medical professionals
