P17. Enhancing Medical Student Education through Gamified Immersive Virtual Reality: An Assessment of Carpal Anatomy Learning

PURPOSE: Teaching spatial anatomy using conventional learning tools remains challenging. Virtual reality (VR) applications can be effective tools in learning anatomy in three dimensions. METHODS: A randomized controlled study assessed user understanding of spatial carpal anatomy using a VR Wrist Game module intervention. Eleven first year medical students at the University of Illinois at Chicago completed the study. Participants completed pre- and post-intervention questionnaires, a textbook reading, and assessment of carpal anatomy knowledge using a standardized physical model test. RESULTS: On the physical model test, the VR group placed a significantly higher number of correctly positioned and oriented bones (Mann-Whitney U = 4.5; p = 0.039). The VR group was 8 times more likely to complete the test faster (OR = 8.0; p = 0.140). The Wrist Game score directly correlated with the physical model test score (r2= 0.82; p = 0.019). All participants agreed that the learning module can help practice transferable motor skills. They would recommend the VR module to colleagues. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that VR effectively provides transferable spatial skills useful in real-life anatomy knowledge application. Faster task completion highlighted VR group's relative comfort with the three-dimensional physical model. We believe that spatial understanding, a transferable skill trained by 3D tools such as VR, is the most clinically relevant and this knowledge is the most applicable in clinical clerkships.