Abstract
Purpose :
The purpose of this study is to develop a virtual reality training program for the diagnosis of strabismus and to verify the usefulness of the program by applying it to ophthalmology residents.
Methods :
We developed the virtual reality training program that realized for the diagnosis of strabismus that included a virtual clinic room, patients with esotropia or exotropia and eye movement examinations, such as the cover- uncover test and alternate prism cover test. In order to evaluate the usefulness of the developed program, we asked eight ophthalmology residents to use this program 30 times. The residents examined three real patients with esotropia or exotropia, before and after using the virtual reality training program, and we recorded videos of these examinations without revealing the residents’ identities. Using the recorded video, a strabismus specialist evaluated the accuracy and proficiency of the examination, based on predetermined scoring criteria. Changes in the accuracy and proficiency before and after the virtual reality training program were analyzed using the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test.
Results :
Before this study, the average number of examinations of real strabismus patients that had been performed by each resident was 30.88 ± 33.60. When assessing their strabismus examination skills before using the virtual reality training program, the accuracy score was 13.13 ± 6.31 points, and proficiency score was 8.38 ± 5.73 points.. After using the program, the accuracy score was 21.50 ± 5.26 points and the proficiency score was 15.25 ± 2.12 points; both scores increased significantly. (p=0.01 and 0.01)
Conclusions :
For residents who cannot examine many strabismus patients, the virtual reality training program for the diagnosis of strabismus was effective in improving the accuracy and proficiency of examination, as well as the diagnosis of strabismus patients.
This abstract was presented at the 2019 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Vancouver, Canada, April 28 - May 2, 2019.