title: Distributed interactive virtual environments for collaborative medical education and training: design and characterization.
abstract: Project TOUCH (Telehealth Outreach for Unified Community Health) is a collaborative effort between University of New Mexico and University of Hawaii. The purpose of the project is to demonstrate the feasibility of using advanced technologies to overcome geographical barriers to delivery of medical education and to enhance the learning process within a group setting. This has led to the design and implementation of a new system that addresses the critical requirements for collaborative virtual environments: consistency, networking, scalability, and system integration. The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of the collaborative system based on use patterns during Project TOUCH sessions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of New Mexico, USA.
authors.forename: Moad Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Mowafil
authors.forename: Kenneth L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Summers
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Holten
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Greenfield
authors.forename: Andrei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sherstyuk
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nickles
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Aalseth
authors.forename: Ward
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Takamiya
authors.forename: Stanley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saiki
authors.forename: Dale
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Alverson
authors.forename: Thomas Preston
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Caudell
mesh_terms: D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006254:Hawaii; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D009516:New Mexico; D014584:User-Computer Interface