WINNER

‘DEVICE’ (Diabetes Emergencies: Virtual Interactive Clinical Education) Project

by DEVICE project team and Oxford Medical Simulation

The DEVICE project team and Oxford Medical Simulation collaborated to explore the feasibility of virtual reality (VR) as a means of delivering effective training in diabetes emergencies for non-specialist trainees. ‘DEVICE’ (Diabetes Emergencies: Virtual Interactive Clinical Education) was developed to improve competence and reduce medical errors. Fully interactive immersive VR scenarios were created to stimulate real-life diabetes emergencies. Users then received personalised feedback and performance metrics. Results revealed increased confidence in managing diabetes emergencies and demonstrated positive changes in behaviour. VR education is a safe, valuable and well-liked training tool for diabetes emergencies with great potential.

Judges’ comments:

“This extremely innovative project took an exciting and refreshing approach to engage HCPs in diabetes and reduce some of the key safety risk factors for inpatients. The VR experience has been thoroughly planned out to include a blended learning approach, whilst still keeping patient care at the centre. It could have huge impact to patient safety if rolled out across the UK and maybe start discussions around wider diabetes training for those whom it sparks an interest with.”