Leveraging Virtual Reality to Enhance Expeditionary Medical Team Performance in Three Key Areas

Abstract

In the early 2000s, significant advances were made in battlefield medicine. This was in large part attributable to changing warfighter injuries and protective gear, but also because of changed medical team posture and training.¹ Many of these lessons learned permeated into civilian and military medical training with high-fidelity simulation mannequins augmenting traditional medical training practices. It is feared, however, that these methods of training, which are still the mainstay of training at present, cannot keep up with the ever-evolving demands of modern day warfare. It is anticipated that virtual reality (VR) may be a better means of training, possibly supplanting some of the current training modalities. If implemented, VR could allow for significant cost savings in addition to narrowing the scope of training to where the military needs it most: psychological desensitization, disaggregated training, and deployed psychomotor currency. When framed another way, VR can also facilitate drilling down on and enhancing mental resiliency, working diligently toward preventive medicine and circumvention of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).