Faculty of ICT, Mahidol University, Nakhon Pathom, Thailand.
Faculty of Dentistry, Thammasat University, Pathum Thani, Thailand.
J Biomed Inform. 2021 Feb;114:103659. doi: 10.1016/j.jbi.2020.103659. Epub 2020 Dec 27.
Fine motor skill is indispensable for a dentist. As in many other medical fields of study, the traditional surgical master-apprentice model is widely adopted in dental education. Recently, virtual reality (VR) simulators have been employed as supplementary components to the traditional skill-training curriculum, and numerous dental VR systems have been developed academically and commercially. However, the full promise of such systems has yet to be realized due to the lack of sufficient support for formative feedback. Without such a mechanism, evaluation still demands dedicated time of experts in scarce supply. To fill the gap of formative assessment using VR simulators in skill training in dentistry, we present a framework to objectively assess the surgical skill and generate formative feedback automatically. VR simulators enable collecting detailed data on relevant metrics throughout a procedure. Our approach to formative feedback is to correlate procedure metrics with the procedure outcome to identify the portions of a procedure that need to be improved. Specifically, for the errors in the outcome, the responsible portions of the procedure are identified by using the location of the error. Tutoring formative feedback is provided using the video modality. The effectiveness of the feedback system is evaluated with dental students using randomized controlled trials. The findings show the feedback mechanisms to be effective and to have the potential to be used as valuable supplemental training resources.
精细运动技能对于牙医来说是不可或缺的。与许多其他医学研究领域一样，传统的手术师徒模式在牙科教育中被广泛采用。最近，虚拟现实（VR）模拟器已被用作传统技能培训课程的补充组件，并且已经在学术和商业上开发了许多牙科 VR 系统。然而，由于缺乏对形成性反馈的充分支持，这些系统的全部潜力尚未实现。没有这样的机制，评估仍然需要稀缺供应的专家专门的时间。为了填补牙科技能培训中使用 VR 模拟器进行形成性评估的空白，我们提出了一个框架，以客观评估手术技能并自动生成形成性反馈。VR 模拟器能够在整个过程中收集相关指标的详细数据。我们的形成性反馈方法是将过程指标与过程结果相关联，以确定需要改进的过程部分。具体来说，对于结果中的错误，通过错误的位置来确定过程中需要改进的部分。使用视频模式提供辅导形成性反馈。使用随机对照试验对牙科学生进行了反馈系统的有效性评估。研究结果表明，反馈机制是有效的，并且有可能被用作有价值的补充培训资源。
