Implementation of Virtual Reality for Teaching Auscultation to 3rd Year Medical Students

Abstract Background. Auscultation is one of the fundamental skills of a doctor in the physical examination of the patient. Virtual reality (VR) training has been used last several years in medical education. The aim of the project is to compare the effectiveness of lung and heart auscultation training using traditional teaching methods and virtual reality technology. Methods. The study was conducted the Belarusian State Medical University. 77 students of 3rd year studying clinical medicine were divided into 2 groups: a group of students who studied in virtual reality (VR protocol, n = 28), and a comparison group - students who studied without using virtual technology (classic scenario, CS protocol, n = 49). VR auscultation was taught using the Oculus Quest 2 headset with software that allows auscultation of the heart and lungs. The study continued throughout the semester. Results. When listening to the control records of lung sounds after the end of training, it turned out that VR group students recognized sounds somewhat better than the students of the CS group (54.5 vs 38.3%), p = 0.010. Heart sound recognition in the VR group was slightly better compared to the CS group (44.6% vs 37.0%), p-0.232. At the final control of testing the knowledge retained on auscultation, which was carried out 3 months after the end of the study of auscultation, it turned out that long-term results were better in the VR group. In recognizing lung sounds, students on the CS protocol performed slightly better (41.7% versus 36.9% for the VR protocol). On cardiac auscultation, the situation was reversed: the VR protocol group recognized sounds in 56.1% of cases, versus 25.4% in the CS protocol group. In all, VR group recognized 47.6% respiratory and heart sounds versus 33.4% in C group, p-0.003. Conclusion. Our data suggest that VR technologies are quite superior in learning efficiency as compared to traditional teaching methods of auscultation and can be used as a supplementary form of teaching.