Virtual reality (VR) has major advantages for facilitating learning in a medical environment. Revinax immersive tutorials use this potential to optimize surgeons’ learning and practice. Improved memorization, reduced cognitive load, and accelerated mastery of the maneuver are some of the concrete positive results. Studies involving a total of more than 700 participants, resulting in a theory and regular publications, have provided scientific proof of these many benefits.
The major cognitive benefits of the Revinax tutorials
Revinax immersive tutorials are designed to improve memorization and operative practice for surgeons encountering a new medical device. They supplement but are not intended to replace classroom learning. They have the following major cognitive benefits:
Better memorization
Information is memorized faster and retained better with videos filled from the first-person point of view, directly activating the mirror neurons, which are directly linked to memorization.
Reduced cognitive load
This allows the learner to concentrate on the most crucial information and to be more engaged, since the brain is more available for acquiring the gesture.
The resources brought to bear by Revinax
Each Revinax tutorial is built using the same process
- Video capture of a procedure performed by a KOL* with the medical device, first in 360° video to put the operating room in context, then in first-person 180° video
- Sequencing of this video in the form of chapters, to help learners orient themselves and locate information more quickly
- The addition of synthetic images around the video, to study or partially manipulate. They allow the learner to have different types of interactions.
Memorization and learning optimized by virtual learning
In Revinax tutorials, VR allows fast and accurate memorization because of:
- Immersion
Based on the verified principle that we retain better what we experience firsthand, first-person point of view allows the brain to actually experience each movement under real-life conditions.
- Fast acquisition
Filming the video in the operating room, an environment familiar to surgeons, results in rapid cross-generational adoption: whether or not one is comfortable with the new technologies is unimportant. What counts is that the brain thinks it is actually performing the procedure.
This allows learners, regardless of age, experience, and practice, to achieve efficiency more quickly, and to carry out the protocol with fewer errors and with more confidence in their movements.
Reduced cognitive load and increased retention
Each tutorial is designed to reduce the cognitive load, so that the brain is available for the main information it needs to deal with, without being distracted by too many secondary messages. This allows learners to better retain what they need to memorize.
To do this, Revinax has put in place various developments, in a balanced instructional design:
- Chapter divisions making it easier to find one’s way around the video.
- Supplemental information, separate from the video so as not interfere with visualization
This reduced cognitive load is directly correlated with keeping the brain fully engaged in the task it is performing.
Scientific support for the Revinax tutorials
Protocolized scientific studies with more than 700 people
To scientifically prove the concept of Revinax’s immersive tutorials, protocolized and randomized scientific studies were conducted with a total of more than 700 participants involved in the validation procedure.
A doctoral dissertation in education
In 2021, to bring this work together, after the protocol was approved by the ethics committee, Maxime Ros, Revinax co-founder and neurosurgeon, defended his dissertation in education, titled The pedagogical benefits of immersive tutorials on technical training in the fields of medicine and surgery. It was used as part of an international partnership between the University of Montpellier and the Department of Neuropsychology State University of New York.
Scientific publications in various journals
Maxime Ros publishes regularly in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and has also presented his work before the Académie Nationale de Chirurgie, of which he is a member.
The scientific method in the service of medical device companies
This scientific backing allows Revinax not only to prove the validity of the concept, but also to support medical device companies in their efforts to measure their return on investment. This provides comprehensive support, based on scientific advice and expertise.
The use of virtual reality in the field of learning and acquisition of a new medical device requires that each step be carefully thought out. Revinax tutorials are designed to improve memorization, engagement, and practice on the part of surgeons using rigorous and proven scientific research.
*KOL: Key opinion leader, a surgeon whose expertise is recognized by his or her peers.
