A new mobile application has been launched to allow medical professionals train to use x-ray equipment without exposing them to potentially harmful radiation.
The Virtual Cath Lab app, which has already been downloaded more than 2,000 times, provides an x-ray machine simulator for PCs, iPhones and iPads.
Shawn Larson, who works as a PACS project manager for the NHS Connecting for Health, told eHealth Insider: “The app has a game engine like Tomb raider or an Xbox to provide a realistic x-ray machine. Using that hopefully cardiologists and can learn how to use such equipment without the danger of being exposed to too much radiation.”
Larson said that the app also has benefits in terms of preparing students to use equipment in a real environment.
“At the moment students use real patients and real equipment to train. It gets them used to using it so that when they go into a cath lab sometimes it can take a week or two to get used to the system this cab give them a head start in knowing what they are doing.”
He said that the app is not only aimed at medical students and that its anatomical viewing capability helps those who are already trained.
“Through the use of 3D anatomical models, helps staff who are already trained in fluoroscopy to fine tune their anatomical knowledge for example by experimenting with new radiographic projections.”
According to Larson, although there have been 100 requests for the app to run on PCs, the majority of people are downloading the app from iTunes.
“Most NHS staff do not have a desk or there are only one or two PCs on the ward, having this application on you iPhone or iPad means that you can have it stored in your coat, or use it on a bus or on Starbucks.”
The application can be downloaded from iTunes for free and is accredited by the College of Radiographers.
Larson said that advanced versions integrated with gaming hardware have already been installed in the cardiac catheterisation labs of Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and will soon be going into the Royal Brompton & Harefield Clinical Skills Suite.
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