Edinburgh Napier University

  This paper presents an initial study exploring and evaluating a novel, accessible and user-centred interface developed for a VR Medical training environment. In particular, the proposed system facilitates a detailed 3D information exchange, with the aim of improving the user’s internal 3D understanding and visualisation of complex anatomical inter-relationships. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed VR teaching method we developed a female 3D model under the guidance of Consultant Breast surgeons with particular emphasis given on the axilla section. In turn we commenced a comparative study between PBL tutorials augmented with VR and the contemporary teaching techniques involving twelve participants. Overall the paper outlines the development process of the proposed VR Medical Training environment, discusses the results from the comparative study, and offers suggestions for further research and a tentative plan for future work.