Novel Augmented Reality Objects and Virtual Avatars for Learning of Clinical Skills

Clinical skills learning is usually conducted with mannequins, standardized patients (SP) or real patients. However, these learning mediums have several limitations such as discomfort of SP, transmission of infectious diseases especially during pandemics, only applicable for a limited range of clinical signs, and potential ethical issues. This research aims to resolve these existing issues in the field of medical education by employing Augmented Reality (AR) technology and virtual patients. We developed AR clinical signs and subsequently integrated them into an AR virtual patient application, and discovered that these learning tools have positive learning impacts.