GoPro's have put a new perspective on how we view extreme sport, and they are set to do the same with medicine, according to Bond University's Dr Victoria Brazil.
Dr Brazil is revolutionising medical training by using GoPro footage taken from patients and family members in simulation sessions, to give doctors a more well-rounded perspective of the patient journey to improve patient care.
She is one of just three medical industry heavyweights set to present at a prestigious medical conference, organised by the creator of the world's first CPR manikin and internationally leading medical equipment and training manufacturer, Laerdal.
The Laerdal Simulation User Network (SUN) Conference is held all over the globe and will this week be held on the Gold Coast (May 28-29), featuring presentations from industry leaders on the use of simulation techniques in medical education and training.
Dr Brazil, a senior emergency physician at Gold Coast University Hospital and Robina Hospital, leads the clinical skills and simulation program at Bond University including both scenario and screen based simulation.
She said her presentation at the Laerdal SUN Conference would focus on simulation as a vital educational tool to improve skills, train teams, examine and improve existing systems, and deliver the very best in patient care.
"The patient experience can be better understood through the use of simulation training. For instance, if we strap a GoPro on a family member during a simulation session, we can use the footage to see the situation from their perspective," said Dr Brazil.
"In the example of a paediatric resuscitation simulation, the GoPro footage taken from a parent during the simulation shows us exactly what they experience during the procedure.
"Juxtaposing what we see as doctors versus what the parent of a patient sees help us to improve our processes to make the journey less stressful for the parent or the patient."
Dr Brazil said simulation techniques can also be used to improve communication between various different groups in the hospital environment.
"Healthcare can be quite a tribal industry, we tend to aggregate around our own 'tribes' - nurses, paramedics, emergency physicians, etcetera," she said.
"Simulation training can be effective in breaking down those barriers, by improving the integration of communication between the various departments in a hospital."
Dr Brazil said the conference gives multi-professionals working in the medical field the chance to broaden their knowledge and share their thoughts on the educational, technical, and strategic issues related to simulation.
"Simulation needs to be goal directed, not just training for the sake of it. We need to determine what are the educational outcomes that we are looking to develop, or what are the patient outcomes that we are aiming to improve," she said.
"In the example of trauma care, we can use goal-directed simulation to specifically target the rapid transfer of a patient to the operating theatre."
The Laerdal SUN Conference is an opportunity for medical professionals to hear from local and international industry leaders in the field of medical simulation, and will also feature keynote presentations from Professor Suzie Kardong-Edgren, Director of the RISE Center at Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania, and Matt Johnson, Director of Education at Cabrini Health.