New York City’s public health system, NYC Health + Hospitals (H+H), is implementing virtual reality (VR) technology to equip their medical teams for managing high-consequence infectious diseases. This decision comes from the awareness of two critical factors: the urgency of infectious diseases such as Ebola, novel influenza virus, and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronavirus, and the inherent fear coupled with a low frequency of these occurrences. The latter, in particular, makes developing familiarity and competence challenging for front-line workers exposed in environments of high intensity and risk, including triage bays, emergency departments, and high-containment laboratories for Biosafety Level 3 (BSL-3) pathogens.
Practically, these pathogens call for rigorous controls, including negative-pressure airflow and enhanced personal protective equipment (PPE). Amid these circumstances, every movement carries significant implications. Whether it’s correctly applying PPE, ensuring the correct procedure for removing such equipment, preventing contamination, or managing bodily fluids, the margin for error is miniscule.
This VR training aims to tackle all these challenges. Implemented specifically for high-consequence infectious diseases or special pathogens, the VR session takes less than 30 minutes and focuses on scenarios with high potential for mistakes. This includes dealing with a suspected special pathogen in an isolation room, managing cross-contamination after exposure to body fluids, correctly removing high-level PPE, and identifying and responding to PPE breaches.
Although the VR training cannot replace hands-on PPE training, it serves as a powerful reinforcing tool that improves yearly PPE training application ubiquitously. Moreover, it addresses tangible concerns of frontline staff about what the error-prone areas might be, and provides immediate feedback on their performance during the training. This focus on muscle memory makes the training a practical and scalable tool, particularly useful in healthcare environments where the fast pace and high risk make every second valuable.
With its introduction, this VR training hopes to bridge the gap between one-time teaching and consistent performance under pressure. NYC H+H has integrated VR training with the in-person special pathogens training provided by the System Biopreparedness Program. The combination of the two modalities not only acquaints the health-care professionals with the flow of procedures before the in-person session but also allows for ongoing reinforcement post-training.
In the larger view, through involving VR in healthcare training, this initiative echoes the movement of accrediting agencies towards a model that doesn’t merely demand the provision of education but also necessitates demonstrations of competency.
Source: https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/how-nyc-practices-for-ebola-and-special-pathogen-outbreaks