Comparing Traditional and Augmented Reality Training for Identifying Critical Symptoms for Diagnosing Airway Obstruction Cases: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Recent developments in the portability, flexibility, and affordability of augmented reality technology allow it to address some limitations of current medical training. This pilot study aims to determine whether augmented reality can enhance the detection and identification of subtle cues used to make accurate medical diagnoses. We randomly assigned five participants to a control group, where they received diagnostic training by reading a standard textbook, and an experimental group, where they received diagnostic training by a combination of reading a standard textbook and augmented reality-based training. All participants were tested with a tension pneumothorax scenario, where they listed symptoms and made a diagnosis. We recorded the time until a final diagnosis was made and categorized the diagnosis and symptoms as accurate or inaccurate. A two-tailed t-test was used to assess differences between groups. The experimental group correctly identified more symptoms than the control group (average 12 vs. 5). These results indicate the potential of AR-based training to enhance detection and identification of cues in medical diagnostics.