At i3 Simulations, we are honoured to share some fantastic news: PeTIT VR, our innovative pediatric trauma virtual reality (VR) education platform, has won multiple innovation awards already! Through our collaborators Fabio Botelho and Dan Poeanaru at McGill University Health Centre, and CommiSur Lab, PeTIT VR has won:
- 2023 McGill Dobson Cup 3rd Place Health Sciences Enterprise Track, part of the Dobson Centre for Entrepreneurship – ‘Building innovative companies with a purpose’
- 2022 Readiness Innovation Challenge Finalist as part of TechConnect
- 2021 Trottier-Webster Innovation Award funded by the MUHC Foundation, the Trottier Family Foundation and the R. Howard Webster Foundation.
These recognitions mean the world to us, and we are profoundly grateful to everyone who has supported us on our journey to revolutionize the world of virtual reality education and pediatric trauma. To learn more about the project and our partners, visit petitvr.com.
The PeTIT VR project is the result of a collaboration between pediatric trauma providers, surgical educators, and innovators. Our main collaborators include McGill University Health Centre and CommiSur Lab in Canada. Our goal is to address the critical issue of pediatric trauma, which claims the lives of one million children worldwide each year and is the leading cause of childhood mortality and disability in several countries.
The most significant errors in pediatric trauma care often stem from a lack of proper communication and leadership, leading to misdiagnosis even in relatively common situations, such as shock or intra-abdominal injuries. Our solution is pediatric trauma simulation training using virtual reality (VR). VR offers a competitive edge through its high fidelity in simulating clinical scenarios, virtually unlimited scalability, and significant cost-effectiveness once the educational platform is developed.
Our groundbreaking innovation will be the first-of-its-kind full pediatric trauma course using VR in the world. What sets our course apart is the unique use of technology to train entire teams in essential non-technical skills like leadership, communication, situational awareness, and decision-making within a multiplayer environment.
Our decision to use VR is based on a scoping review completed by the McGill University Health Centre research lab. After reviewing 6,471 articles focused on technology in trauma education, VR emerged as the ideal candidate platform for hosting an immersive, scalable, and cost-effective pediatric trauma course, including non-technical skills training. Other platforms, such as high- and low-fidelity mannequins, augmented reality, and (remote) didactic lectures, all lack various feasibility criteria, being either unaffordable, insufficiently immersive, or educationally deficient.
Not only does our project hold the potential to transform pediatric trauma education, but it also opens a new frontier in non-technical skills medical education research, translatable to other medical and surgical specialties. According to recent medical literature on non-technical skills training, the ideal methods for teaching non-technical skills in surgical education remain unclear—a gap that can be filled through future projects based on our agile platform.
We at i3 Simulations are incredibly grateful for the recognition our PeTIT VR project has received and are committed to continuing our work to revolutionize the world of virtual reality education and pediatric trauma. Thank you for your support, and stay tuned for more exciting developments in the future!
