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MARTIN COUNTY -s across Southern Minnesota and Martin County are accessing interactive training through virtual reality
Before, Regional Executive Director Mark Griffith said all of their emergency simulations required a lot of equipment, which had to travel from its home base to wherever in the nine-county area needed training.
“Let’s say we were going to practice airway management,” he said. “We would have to bring an airway mannequin. We’d have to bring airways. We had to bring the accessories for the airways like bag valves, oxygen bottles, that sort of thing. We had to find a mannequin that would all work on, and then we had to paint that picture.”
Because this equipment was transported so often, it also suffered sustained wear and tear over time, requiring them to replace items at a higher rate.
Using virtual reality for these simulations popped on the radar of Griffith around 2022, and they began to look seriously into it before picking up VR headsets in 2024 thanks to grant funding from the Minnesota Office of Emergency Medical Services.
“There were a few programs on the market,” he said. “We went with [SimX] because we can put multiple people into the same scenario, so they’re all working together.”
Not only that, but they can also do trainings together from different locations, so an EMS professional in Truman could work with professionals using the software in Granada and Fairmont. The maximum number of people for a given scenario is three.
As for what made this the right time to bring virtual reality on board, Griffith said it is a neat way to immerse folks who are in a rural setting.
“You bring all this technology out to Truman here, and you can put them in 18 different scenarios in one night if you wanted to,” he said. “All we need is a Wi-Fi connection. That’s it. It’s been good. We use this to reinforce skills here.”
Not only that, but it has become a tool of recruitment in a field that needs more people.
“This is how we’re training these days,” Griffith said. “Part of our strategy is if our workforce is going to be sustainable, we have to have younger people. Younger people are technology savvy, so we better get with the program.”
The way it works is there is a computer and a VR headset. The person at the computer will queue up a scene, and it will show up in the VR headset for the user to interact with. It will go through a checklist of what to do and automatically check them off when the headset user completes them. Their progress can be assessed in real time and documented for further discussion after the simulation ends.
So far, Truman and Granada have been able to utilize this VR training, which has 18 situations with everything from diabetic and cardiac arrest situations to someone making suicidal threats or who has fallen out of bed at the hospital. Truman EMS Assistant Director of Operations and South Central MN EMS Advisory Board Member Matt Lange said the people he’s had trained with it have loved it.
“They like the aspect of the virtual reality being thrown into the mix, not having to wonder what the scene looks like because it’s shown to them,” he said. “We’ve had nothing but good feedback. The one main thing is some people get dizzy because it’s new to them. They don’t typically do the VR thing. That’s the only complaint I’ve ever heard, you get sweaty and dizzy.”
Part of the reason for this is the design of the current headset they use, the Meta Quest 2. With support for that device ending by 2028, South Central MN EMS is in the process of replacing Quest 2s with Quest 3s, which are lighter and smaller. On top of this, they will run smoother with faster processors and higher fidelity. Grant funding from the MN Office of EMS is helping with this expense as well.
On top of this, the software will also be getting an update so the characters EMS professionals interact with in the simulation can respond to them in real-time.
“Here at the end of the year, they’re going to have some AI integrations in there,” Griffith said. “When Matt was talking to that patient earlier [in a simulation], I was having to key up the responses [by hand]. With the new system, Matt would push a button on the joystick, he talks to this patient and the patient automatically responds.”
While this system has brought benefits, it is not replacing the old methods of training outright. Lange said VR helps emulate real-life situations at will, but EMS professionals still need to refine fine motor skills, which is best done using physical mannequins and constructed situations.
To be able to bring this technology to rural areas, Griffith said the program’s moderators and instructors are just excited.
“This is fun stuff,” he said. “This is putting your money where your mouth is when it comes to being interactive, having some fun with this and walking away with something.”
“It’s definitely beneficial to see providers in the field and how they grow from just the beginning of the day to after we’re done,” Lange added. “You see a marked improvement.”
