Microsoft Mixed Reality on Healthcare Education

Starting from April 2022, Medical and nursing students at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine will learn medical procedures and explore anatomical structures using Microsoft's three-dimensional holographic technology.

Project Polaris, a cooperation between NUS Medicine, the National University Health System, and Microsoft, incorporates mixed reality into the learning experience. Medical and nursing students can expect to significantly improve their skills through holographic training offered by the Microsoft HoloLens 2.

Project Polaris will use the HoloLens 2 to project three-dimensional holograms to give medical and nursing students a visual representation of real-world clinical scenarios. Students can use this suite of instructional software to practise clinical procedural skills like inserting a cannula and catheters in male and female urinary tracts using 3D mixed reality technology.

NUS Medicine's and Microsoft's medical and technical competence will pave the path for the establishment of a niche technological competency in which clinical training tools can be developed.

The School's Vice-Dean for Education, Associate Professor Lau Tang Ching, stated, "We are always looking for new and innovative teaching methods to help medical and nursing students better understand the medical curriculum and gain a new appreciation for healthcare and health, while trying to strike a balance with tried-and-true traditional methods. This integration of holographic mixed-learning reality fits nicely with our educational goals, and we look forward to seeing our partnership with Microsoft grow in the coming years."

Dean of NUS Medicine Professor Chong Yap Send stated, "I'm delighted to see that our educators have discovered like-minded industrial partners with whom they can collaborate in the development of the future generation of medical professionals. We are even more certain that our graduates will be future-ready clinicians as a result of these interdisciplinary collaborations."