The catch-22 of medical training is this: no one wants to be practiced on by an inexperienced physician, but physicians can’t become experienced without patients to practice on. It’s an old problem that has only deepened as medical knowledge has expanded.
As Dr Karim Qayumi of CyberPatient points out, there’s still a lot medical school can’t prepare you for. But VR tech may finally begin to bridge the divide.
Read CyberPatient CEO Dr Karim Qayumi on simulation and medicine.
“ ‘Standing in the middle of an emergency room with people screaming in pain all around me, I realized medical school didn’t prepare me for this,’ Qayumi added, recalling his first time on the medical wards.
With constrained hospital budgets and overpacked schedules, today’s medical students face a similar problem, which is not helpful for optimal patient outcomes. CyberPatient solves that problem.
Students can sharpen their abilities for history taking, physical examinations, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of patients.”
The company’s plan to freely share its tech in the developing world could go a long way to solving other perennial problems in medical training, too - like a lack of real-world resources. In a big and fast-moving world, any tech that gives us better doctors, faster, is to be commended.