On University of Illinois’s Grainger College of Engineering Week: Extended reality technology may help medical and law enforcement professionals develop empathy during training.
Caroline Cao, professor and director of applied health technology initiatives and director of engineering innovation and medical simulation in the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, examines the importance.
Caroline G. L. Cao received a Ph.D. in mechanical & industrial engineering from the University of Toronto in 2002. Professor Cao is a researcher, educator and entrepreneur with extensive experience in the design and development of medical systems and devices, and enabling technology (AR/VR, simulation and training, decision aid, sensory substitution, navigational aid, robotics, etc.) for minimally invasive surgery and robotic surgery. Prior to joining UIUC, she was International Chair for Industry of the Future and Professor of Computer Science at IMT Atlantique in Brest, France, and Adjunct Professor in the Future Industry Institute at University of South Australia, from 2021 to 2023, where she developed partnerships with industries to address challenges in Industry 4.0 and 5.0 (e.g., digital twins, human-robot interaction, artificial intelligence, XR technology, system resilience). She is a recipient of the US National Science Foundation Career Award, a US Fulbright Scholar award, and the International Chair of RFI ATLANSTIC 2020 in France. Professor Cao is an elected Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES), the International Ergonomics Association (IEA), and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). She is an Associate Editor of the journal Human Factors. Dr. Cao is currently President-Elect of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
Medical Training Using Simulation in Extended Reality
In high-stakes situations, empathy has been singled out as a key quality in successful crisis management for first responders. Scenario-based training for medical and law enforcement professionals is the most intuitive way to teach a skill, or to allow a trainee to experience a new emotion in context. Take, for example, the military’s long history of using war games, a simulation exercise, to train their soldiers and pilots.
My research team is developing XR or extended reality technology – such as virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality, and artificial intelligence – to train empathy in medical and law enforcement professionals. XR provides a flexible and scalable method to train in a safe environment, allowing the trainee to repeat a routine scenario, or a rare scenario, as many times as needed to achieve mastery. In doing so, we are breaking from the apprenticeship model of watch-one, do-one, teach-one in medical and law enforcement training.
Furthermore, when powered by AI, we now can create realistic interactive scenarios that were not possible due to ethical constraints. For example, we can prepare a medical or police officer trainee to regulate their own emotions while displaying empathy when encountering difficult situations – such as de-escalating a suicidal attempt or interviewing a 6-year-old autistic child who has just been raped – using XR simulation. These individuals would have been difficult to simulate with a role player. During the simulated interaction in XR, the system provides real-time feedback, including performance metrics and an empathy score, and most importantly, the instantaneous reaction and behavior of the subject.
Our work lays the foundation for addressing important societal challenges such as social connectedness in cyber-human systems, empathy in critical situations and non-critical decision-making, and provides innovative and scalable solutions.
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