Innovative podiatry practice: an immersive VR surgery simulation with bimanual haptic interaction

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Researchers and medical experts devised a virtual reality (VR) force feedback system to simulate ingrown toenail removal as a stepping-stone towards a new, immersive form of learning material. The fusion of VR and haptic technologies is an innovative approach to stimulate visual and kinesthetic human senses for learning engagement. METHOD: Our bimanual haptic feedback system, tuned with the advice of experts, allows users to physically interact with a 3D deformable virtual foot and perform surgery with various tools, tackling the shortcomings of existing surgical simulations tools in a portable system. The graphic and haptic rendering techniques to simulate each step of the surgical procedure are described. RESULTS: The usability and effectiveness were tested with 37 participants, including both podiatric medical students and non-medical students. Medical students improved completion time in all surgical tasks by over 160%. Statistical analysis indicates a significant difference in skill of medical students and non-medical students to establish a baseline correlation between performance and experience suggesting preliminary system usability. CONCLUSION: Post-simulation assessment techniques provide insight into necessary improvement areas before launching comparative learning impact study in the future. Nonetheless, the results show a promising direction for using our developed system to improve ingrown toenail removal skills.