A Virtual Environment for Radiotherapy Training and Education - VERT

Abstract

A report in 2007 to the UK Government identified a crisis in England for training staff and students for the radiotherapy treatment of cancer. The Hull authors have developed an immersive life size virtual environment of a radiotherapy treatment room, known as VERT, to address this problem. VERT provides the trainee with models, simulation, enhanced visualization and training aids for treatment of virtual patients in a virtual treatment room. In 2007 VERT systems for radiotherapy training were established for training purposes at the University Aarhus Hospital (Denmark), Birmingham City University (UK) and the University of Ulster (UK). There are now some 70 VERT systems around the world. This paper reports on the simulation and visualization capabilities and reports on the use of VERT from the Aarhus University hospital and on the national evaluation of VERT in the UK [AC10]. These reports clearly indicate the clinical benefit of using a virtual environment approach, such as VERT, for training and education in radiotherapy.