A team from Radiological Science Singhealth and Playware studios, lead by Dr Yu Wai-Yung won the prestigious Innovplus Flame award (the award comes with a grant of S$200K).

The winning solution is aimed at improving the emergency preparedness of radiology staff (radiologists, radiographers, and nurses) in handling severe contrast-related adverse events during medical imaging procedures. As severe contrast-related adverse events are rare, experience and competence among healthcare professionals vary greatly, and studies have shown low levels of preparedness in radiology departments. The increasing use of contrast media in medical imaging means the absolute number of severe contrast-related adverse events is likely to increase over time. Relying only on the current theoretical management is not ideal for patient safety and outcomes. There is a need for a solution to enhanced standardised levels of emergency preparedness in handling severe events and minimise the risks of these events occurring. Read more about the challenge statement here.

The proposed solution will take the following form:

Humanistic Simulation. The solution would include human stimulus and interactive simulations that closely replicate real-life scenarios. Learners would interact with virtual patients, recognizing their reactions and communicating with them to identify adverse events and symptoms. The use of spoken language and animations would further enhance the realism.

Fidelity and realism. The solution would increase fidelity to make the simulations feel more real. This would involve incorporating animations and spoken language to depict patient distress and communication.

Character-based scenarios. Learners would encounter different patient profiles, including challenging and easy cases, to help them to learn how to work with different attitudinal and behavioural patterns.

Multiplayer interdisciplinary problem-solving: A multiplayer component brings a diverse team together for collaboration and problem-solving. Learners from different roles, such as radiologists, radiographers, and nurses, can work together to solve the problems presented in the scenarios. The character-based scenarios would also apply for multi-disciplinary teams, where learners play in roles with varying skill, competence ratings and personalities. This help to simulate real-world dynamics and promote effective teamwork.

Time compression and intensity: The solution would employ time compression techniques to create more intense and time-sensitive situations for learning. Learners would experience time-sensitive situations that require quick decision-making and action, such as responding before patients collapse or reacting to decision-forcing events.

Mobile-based, with offline capability: The solution would be mobile-based, allowing learners to access and engage in the simulations anytime, anywhere. It would be an executable (.exe) application, ensuring that learners are not limited by internet speed or connectivity issues. This flexibility would allow learners to engage in training anytime, anywhere, making it accessible and convenient for busy healthcare professionals.

About Innovplus

Enterprises are often stumped with the complexity of linking learning and development to work performance. Unravel the learning challenges that hinder work performance by embarking on the innovPlus Challenge.

Training organisations and enterprises will collaborate with prospective Solution Partners to jointly develop innovative learning solutions.

innovPlus is a competitive learning innovation challenge which awards a prototyping funding of up to S$200,000 to winning organisations to develop an innovative, feasible and scalable prototype that advances CET practice and outcomes.

Innovplus is organized by iNLAB a initiative by IAL Singapore.

About RSS

Radiological Science Singhealth is a part of The SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre (AMC) which draws on the collective strengths of SingHealth and Duke-NUS Medical School to drive the transformation of healthcare and provide affordable, accessible and quality care to patients. It boasts of a network of acute hospitals, national specialty centres, community hospitals and polyclinics offering over 40 clinical specialties, as well as a talent pool of doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, researchers, educators, faculty members and administrators.