The Growing Value of Extended Reality (XR) and Simulation-Based Learning in Healthcare and Medical Education

Friday, July 21 | 8:00 – 9:00 am

Today, we stand at the precipice of a revolution in healthcare and medical education. We’re not talking about a mere incremental step forward, but rather a transformative leap into a new reality – an Extended Reality.

Extended Reality, or XR, a collective term for Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR), has begun to fundamentally reshape the way we approach medical training and patient care. It’s as though we’ve been handed a new set of tools – tools that enable us to break free from the constraints of traditional pedagogical methods in a co-located environment and leap into an immersive, simulation-based learning experience.

The power of XR extends beyond the operating room. From the classroom to the clinic, it provides an opportunity for immersive, experiential learning, allowing students and professionals alike to practice clinical decision-making and procedural skills in a controlled, reproducible setting. Of course, no revolution comes without its challenges – cost, expert operations, and an end-to-end ecosystem of specialized technologies, among others – but the potential benefits of XR are too powerful to ignore. In this talk, explore with me the growing value of XR in healthcare and medical education, to envision a future where XR is not just an optional extra, but an integral part of practice and the workforce. Welcome to the future of healthcare – an extended, immersive, and transformative reality.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this talk, the attendee will be able to: Explain Extended Reality (XR) and be able to define the differences between Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR); Describe three key aspects of how XR can be used to challenge the constraints of traditional pedagogical methods in medical education; Identify at least two practical applications for using XR for training healthcare workers.

Keywords: Extended Reality, XR, Learning, Healthcare

About the Presenter
Bob Morreale is a Board-Certified Medical Illustrator and a Fellow of the Association of Medical Illustrators (FAMI). Bob received his BA and MS from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, NY. Bob is the administrative leader for Mayo Clinic’s Center for Biomedical & Scientific Visualization, Enterprise Multidisciplinary Simulation Centers and Procedural Skills Mastery laboratories, and the Department of Clinical Anatomy. Prior to joining Mayo Clinic, Bob’s career path has taken him through The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Cleveland Clinic. His expertise is in creative thinking, visual storytelling, and medical & scientific visualization. Currently, Bob is focused on developing immersive and experiential learning strategies to help Mayo Clinic to evolve as a learning organization, influencing and facilitating the right people in the right environment, and transforming the delivery of medical education through real-life simulation-based environments.