Clinical Education Innovation Enabled by XR Space Medicine Technology

Abstract

Head-mounted extended reality (XR) has emerged as a powerful tool in medical education for simulation of clinical and surgical situations. Another potentially powerful clinical tool of XR may be to help clinicians further understand disease from the patient’s perception. In our work to develop a training tool for astronauts undergoing interplanetary gravitational transitions, we identified a unique opportunity to also develop this emerging tool for clinicians specializing in vestibulo-ocular disease. By emulating patient perception of disease, this may increase understanding and clinical insight into clinical care in the future. This work is a component of a developing NASA-funded, head-mounted multimodal visual assessment framework to assess for subtle changes in astronaut vision. XR is a promising tool to help further understand patient perception of disease, and may one day serve as a useful countermeasure for both individuals on Earth and in space.