Airway Fire

What is Airway Fire?

Airway Fire is a mixed reality application which allows the user to visualize combustion when dealing with intubated patients who are receiving high concentrations of oxygen while undergoing surgery. 

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In the News:

• News @ Miami: The power and potential of mixed reality
• Informatics: ‍Fire in the Operating Room: Use of Mixed Reality Simulation with Nurse Anesthesia Students

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The Problem

As a nursing student, hands-on training is essential. However, conducting this simulation in a physical room within the simulation hospital is expensive and involves equipment that could pose fire hazards. Physically visualizing smoke and fires in an operating room is both impractical and unsafe.

The Magic Leap One provided an ideal solution. By using this augmented reality device, we were able to replace costly smoke machines and eliminate fire hazards. The digital overlay of smoke and fire within the operating room and the patient's mouth created a realistic and safe training environment. This immersive experience enhanced our learning by providing a vivid and interactive simulation, ultimately preparing us better for real-life scenarios.

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The general problem statements to be resolved with the state of this training module without the use of Airway Fire were as follows:

• ‍High Cost of Traditional Training Simulations:
  • Traditional nursing simulations involving physical equipment such as smoke machines are expensive, making it difficult to provide frequent and varied training opportunities.
• Safety Concerns in Simulation Environments:
  • Conducting realistic fire and smoke simulations in a physical environment poses significant safety hazards, potentially endangering students and instructors.
• Limited Realism in Current Training Methods:
  • Physical simulations often fail to accurately replicate the visual and environmental conditions of real-life smoke and fire scenarios, leading to less effective training.
• Lack of Flexibility in Scenario Creation:
  • Traditional simulation setups are inflexible and difficult to modify, limiting the ability to create a diverse range of training scenarios tailored to different learning objectives.
• Delayed Feedback in Training:
  • Traditional simulation methods lack the capability to provide immediate, detailed feedback, hindering students' ability to learn and improve in real-time.

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The solution to these problem statements was the integration of Magic Leap One's augmented reality technology, which replaced costly and hazardous physical simulations with immersive digital overlays of smoke and fire. This innovation created a safer, more realistic, and flexible training environment, accessible from anywhere, and provided immediate feedback for enhanced learning experiences.

By addressing cost, safety, realism, accessibility, flexibility, and feedback, this solution revolutionized nursing training, making it more effective and efficient​

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Goal

The goal of Airway Fire is to provide nursing students with a realistic, safe, and cost-effective training tool for simulating smoke and fire emergencies in an operating room. By using augmented reality, the application aims to:

1. Enhance the learning experience
2. Improve student preparedness for real-life scenarios
3. Eliminate the risks and costs associated with traditional physical simulations​

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The App Experience

The user experience was split into student and control room operators. The students would wear the Magic Leap headset, while the control room operator would control the experience from a separate room and grade students based on if they were able to prevent airway and environmental fires from occurring during the simulation.

The student's goals is to successfully complete the simulation. The control room operator's goal is to trigger the correct environmental effects and correctly record students' performance.

The student experience is simple and UI free. This is because we wanted to make any AR component to the app add to the existing physical environment. This simulation occurred in the simulation hospital and students used medical apparatus while wearing the Magic Leap One headset.

Based on previous trials of the Magic Leap One technology and other XR headsets, I knew that seeing too many UI elements moving around you while also participating in the physical world around you was distracting and nauseating. To prioritize comfort, there was no UI shown to students apart from the smoke, fire, water effects that appeared on the dummy patient and in the student's environment.

The user flow for the airway fire application for students would typically follow these steps:

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The control room operator's experience differed due to their different goals, explained above. Control room operators hav a one-time app setup effort to place the anchor points on the dummy patient and in the environment.

The user flow for the airway fire application for control room operators would typically follow these steps:

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Launch & Conclusion

The app has been successfully used every semester at the University of Miami since the Fall 2020 semester.

This project was amazing to work on. I loved attending the nursing students' sessions and seeing how they were able to react to the digital smoke and fire. The professors at the University of Miami school of nursing were highly motivated to work together to create something innovative, and I felt that we were always aligned in this goal. The team really came together for this spectacular use case of AR technology in the healthcare sector. This experience has guided me through my journey in both software development an produc design.