title: [Virtual reality in medical education].
abstract: Virtual reality technology has found new applications in industry over the last few years. Medical literature has for several years predicted a break-through in this technology for medical education. Although there is a great potential for this technology in medical education, there seems to be a wide gap between expectations and actual possibilities at present. State of the technology was explored by participation at the conference "Medicine meets virtual reality V" (San Diego Jan. 22-25 1997) and a visit to one of the leading laboratories on virtual reality in medical education. In this paper we introduce some of the basic terminology and technology, review some of the topics covered by the conference, and describe projects running in one of the leading laboratories on virtual reality technology for medical education. With this information in mind, we discuss potential applications of the current technology in medical education. Current virtual reality systems are judged to be too costly and their usefulness in education too limited for routine use in medical education.
authors.affiliation: Farmakologisk avdeling, Universitetet i Tromsø.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Edvardsen
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Steensrud
mesh_terms: D019412:Anatomy, Cross-Sectional; D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004501:Education, Medical; D018961:Educational Technology; D006801:Humans; D008490:Medical Informatics; D017145:Models, Educational; D014481:United States