Throughout our job interviews with aspiring medical crew members, we are often asked if they could participate in a trial mission before they sign their contracts. Unfortunately, due to technical, logistical, scheduling and legal reasons, we are not able to present this opportunity to our potential new colleagues, even though we feel it to be an excellent idea. Additionally, during our medical meetings, the question always lingered: “How can we make our recurrent training a bit more attractive and closer to the real-life emergencies that our medical colleagues have experienced within their careers as emergency and intensive care unit (ICU) doctors, yet have not experienced in the confined space of a small aircraft cruising at 25,000ft?”

Then, one day, our CEO, Dr Péter Túri, dashed into the office, and said: “You’ll never believe the idea I came across!” He had been shown a pair of virtual reality (VR) goggles and, even though the application he had played around with had no medical connection whatsoever, he immediately saw that we could utilize this tool within the scope of our operations. The project kicked off in an instant, and we got to meet the dedicated team of ARWorks, who are a leading developer in the field of VR and augmented reality (AR). It was a great, and sometimes funny, experience seeing how IT and VR developers learned a ton of stuff about pulse oximeters, portable ventilators and medical emergencies, and how we, medical professionals, learned about VR mapping, environmental noise generation and scenario programming. I have to say, for an emergency physician with a keen heart for IT geekery, it was a privilege to have a front row seat as the magic of the VR developers unfolded.

Even during the first tests, it was apparent how immersive this environment can be: once, while crawling around in the virtual space of the aircraft, I was actually trying to grab the backrest of a nearby seat. It had always been there in the real plane and I could see it there with the goggles on, but I wasn’t able to touch it as it was not physically there in the virtual space, of course!

It is just astonishing to observe the dynamic details of the scenario, to see the shifting values and running curves on the screens of the medical equipment, representing each and every change in the condition of the patient, which can also be detected by simple physical examination (movement of chest, changing of skin color etc). Artificial intelligence (AI) is also always there for the candidate doing the training in the shape of ‘Prof’, who can help them through difficulties.

In the meantime, we made ourselves busy devising medical

The candidate has to correctly identify the cause and, through proper action, stabilize the condition of the patient

emergency scenarios that could happen in flight, and could be caused by several different reasons. Without going in to all the details, the candidate has to correctly identify the cause and, through proper action, stabilize the condition of the patient. Even though this is an early prototype, the immense potential that this tool carries is clearly undeniable. We have already begun brainstorming the next steps of the development: how can we create scenarios that are even more lifelike and how can we simulate more realistic emergency situations, so that the whole air ambulance community can put this latest, cutting-edge technology to a good use during their own training. I can tease a small spoiler of the next stage of the development of the project: our next-generation virtual patient is able to verbally communicate (although, not the simulated intubated patient for obvious reasons) and the trainee can actually talk to them and ask questions about past medical history, recent complaints, medical allergies, etc. This adaptation to the VR-based simulation medical training is more lifelike and more realistic. Called EmergenSIM 2.0, it is something we are extremely proud of, and is the only one of its kind in the world at the moment, as far as we know and certainly within the air medical community.

As well as being used for medical training and simulation, our VR suite can also be used to demonstrate our aircraft remotely for our assistance partners. We have been able to use it to explain and show the size and layout of the cabin of our aircraft, helping them to understand, for example, why we can’t accept heavy and bulky luggage on board, or numerous extra relatives as accompanying passengers more easily. We had a meeting with the colleagues from EuropAssistance Hungary who were amazed to experience our aircraft in their office on the 3rd floor, instead of at a distant airport hangar.

As well as being used for medical training and simulation, our VR suite can also be used to demonstrate our aircraft remotely for our assistance partners

Its portability is one of its advantages, and we be taking it to the Semmelweis Medical University job expo, bringing the air medical profession even closer to future doctors.

On a closing note, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to a few of my close colleagues who are participating in this project: Dr Linda Kulcsár, Deputy Medical Director at TrustAir Aviation, Szabolcs Budaházy, CEO of ARWorks, and Gábor Lakatos, VR Developer and Project Manager. The journey we started is just beginning, and there is still a long way to go, but it is paved with countless opportunities. It is our dedication to exploit as much potential from this new tool as possible and to push the boundaries of this technology even further.