PC3118: Prospective Study Comparing Virtual Reality to Live Demonstration for Neonatal Intubation Education

Background: Virtual reality (VR) is a relatively new technology that allows an individual to experience a virtual world and includes 360° immersive videos. This new immersive video type may be useful in procedure-based healthcare settings. We hypothesized that VR neonatal intubation education was non-inferior to live demonstration in skill and knowledge transfer.

Methods: This was a single center, randomized control trial. We used a Garmin VIRB® 360 to record an educational intubation video using Premature Anne TM. An Oculus Go™ was used to view the 360° immersive videos. Over a two-week period, multidisciplinary trainees and clinicians were invited to participate in this study and subsequently allocated to either a live demonstration group or a VR group using Google Random Number Generator. Each group received 20 minutes of teaching from the same senior respiratory therapist, either in the format of video or in person. Participants were scored on knowledge and skill acquisition using a questionnaire and checklist.

Results: We had a total of 23 participants, VR (n=11) and live demonstration (n=12). The groups were heterogeneous in experience levels, however intubation and neonatal intubation experience were equal between the two groups (p=0.641). The VR group was successful to intubate (n=8) similarly to the live demonstration group (n=7), (p=0.667). The median time to successful intubation for the VR group was 60 seconds (IQR 29-118) and 57 seconds (IQR 51.5-58.5) for the live demonstration group (p=0.685). When comparing scores between groups there was no statistically significance differences for knowledge scores (p=0.514), skill scores (p=0.826), total scores (p=0.926), and number of intubation attempts (p=0.811). We had four participants complain of motion-sickness symptoms.

Conclusion: The benefits of VR for teaching procedures includes accessibility, availability, replay capabilities and exposure to cases in a non-stressful environment. VR intubation was non-inferior to live demonstration and is a safe, inexpensive, and practical way for trainees to learn intubation skills. The addition of VR to the arsenal of teaching tools may enrich the learning experience for trainees.