Best place to learn to wield deadly high-energy X-rays is in virtual reality
Education is all about teachable moments.
Unfortunately most radiation therapy students do not have the luxury of learning from mistakes when using high-energy X-rays to treat cancer in real-world clinical settings.
College of Southern Nevada radiation therapy students will have the added advantage of practicing their skills first in the safety of virtual reality.
In November, the CSN Radiation Therapy Program will be one of seven higher education institutions in the nation to obtain a Virtual Environmental Radiotherapy Training system. Also known as VERT, the virtual program creates a three-dimensional setting in which radiation therapy students treat a virtual patient with high-energy X-rays ranging from 6 million to 18 million electron volts.
"These energy levels of X-rays could cause irreparable damage to a patient if administered incorrectly. This simulation equipment is a great way for students to gain expertise in wielding this kind of power before they ever get to a real patient," said Jim Godin, CSN Radiation Therapy Program director.
The technology, created by the British company Vertual Ltd., uses rear-projection technology to show interactive 3-D images on a screen that is 14-feet tall and 9-feet wide. Students wear special 3-D goggles while moving around the life-sized virtual patient to practice various radiation procedures.
The technology was purchased with federal Perkins grant money and will be available for students to use in the spring 2013 semester.
"Our students will be part of a lucky few around the country that can operate a radiation therapy machine and literally look inside the virtual patient to see where they are treating as if the patient is right in front of them," Godin said. "The students will be able to localize critical structures, view the path of the radiation beams all the way down to the organs being treated, view dosages being delivered around the tumor and evaluate the accuracy of radiation fields."
