A VR app that expands the veterinary ‘experience’ not just for vet teams but for clients too…
VetVR, created by the team at US-based Leikos Studio, proves that while animals and their ailments remain (mostly) the same, the methods and tech used to diagnose and treat them are never static.
The developers behind this immersive software are working to reduce the restrictions that veterinary teams may feel in how they can practise when they’re not in the practice. Traditional training methods may require large spaces, money, and travel. Virtual reality allows access to veterinary experiences in smaller/private spaces, at lower costs. Limited resources need not be a barrier to quality, virtual hands-on education.
But this isn’t just for vet teams; anyone can download and ‘play’ this with the right equipment: a VR headset compatible with PC, and of course a PC good enough to run VR apps!
In VR you can practise on animal avatars with the freedom to make mistakes and try again – a luxury not afforded to real-world veterinary practice. VetVR, say its creators, can benefit existing and would-be veterinarians by letting them “step into the shoes” of a vet and practise procedures in a safe environment. Inside several scenarios, veterinary students can become familiar with situations they may encounter in real life and, once they do encounter them, already understand how to deal with them without the experience of facing it for the first time.
“Others may use VetVR as a way to gain an appreciation for what a veterinarian does on a daily basis and could influence younger people to pursue the career later on,” says Dr Marie Vans, who leads the research side of VetVR. “As a researcher, I find that the VR experience contains the scenarios I need to help with understanding cognitive load and the focus on making sure these learning experiences do not cause students to enter into situations that are so stressful that learning is effectively stopped. VetVR is a great foundation upon which research results can be extrapolated to other stressful learning experiences.”
Dr Pedro Boscan, lead vet on the project, adds: “When training in medicine, including vet med, you are at the mercy of your school caseload and coincidence. For example, if you are a student in school doing your training you may never get to work on a dog who was hit by a car. Then, you will graduate never experiencing a dog hit by a car, but you will encounter many of those patients in your professional career. VR allows us to create important scenarios for everyone to practise it, and you can practise it until you master all concepts.
“Another benefit from VR is that it allows the user or player to manage stress. I believe coping with stress is in big part a learned skill. Handling difficult cases with low-stake consequences such as in VR, it helps train and develop stress coping management skills. These skills are essential for any emergency situation.”
Dr Boscan has been testing and promoting VetVR at the veterinary school of Colorado State University. “Veterinary students, interns, resident and other veterinarians have used VetVR,” he says. “In addition, the application is currently used to promote veterinary medicine among middle and high school students.
“CSU veterinary college also has an outreach programme. The team travels to schools across the state of Colorado with the goal of incentivising younger generations, including those in rural areas, to consider veterinary medicine. Our long-term goal is to replenish rural areas with veterinarians because these areas are in need.
“Feedback from people is usually very positive. People are impressed by how realistic it is and that you can do veterinary medicine in VR. Education research done at our institution shows that students consider it very useful for their learning and helps with practice repetition for multiple conditions, which is not possible in real life. Students do like the lower stress level when learning and playing, but on the negative side there are some people who get cybersickness or dizzy when using VR. This problem tends to improve over time for most people.”
Dr Vans, meanwhile, has been carrying out research in her lab with high school and college students who are not veterinary students but would like to understand what a vet does. “They catch on very quickly and are able to navigate without much direction, even if they have never played VR before – and many of them have only heard of VR,” she says. “They loved it, especially being able to interact with the dog – throwing a ball and having it brought back to them, playing the lobby games, and so on. The only negative feedback was that when they got into the operating room and they didn’t read directions carefully, they felt lost.
“VetVR is on the cutting edge as it demonstrates the power of training in virtual spaces. Once the form factor of the wearable technology becomes something like a simple pair of glasses, VetVR will have already shown how to use virtual environments for training not only for veterinary students, but any educational experience that requires hands-on practice as well as dangerous/high-risk environments.”
How to access it
A public early access version of VetVR is available to play on the PC’s Steam platform. Users so far are a mix of avid videogame players and virtual reality enthusiasts, and the dev team use direct feedback from players to inform future development and improve the experience – along with requests for certain scenarios, animals and features. The goal is to strike the perfect balance between entertainment and education.
Some casual players have reportedly found the game helpful in understanding the behind-the-scenes workings of veterinary medicine, feeling less anxiety in the real world when they take their pets in for veterinary care and/or procedures, and the devs hope that the game will increase awareness of pet care and how important regular veterinary visits are to a pet’s happiness and quality of life.
With a ‘learn as you play’ philosophy, and progression tracked as you go, VetVR offers a great way for anyone to gain a greater understanding of veterinary medicine.
Follow VetVR’s development