A survey study for the development of virtual reality technologies in orthopedics

Virtual reality (VR) technologies have the potential to support medical education and training. In order to orient the development of medical VR applications towards the actual deficiencies and demands in orthopedics, we performed a survey among 56 orthopedic physicians. They were asked to provide information about the kind of physical joint evaluation tests which they perform most often, the importance of physical joint evaluation in comparison to alternative diagnostic methods, and their opinion about current medical education system as well as the prospects of VR applications in orthopedics. The main conclusion of this survey is that VR applications have the potential to improve the lacking medical education and orthopedic training, e.g. by improving the quality of joint evaluation methods, reducing the high number of unhealthy, risky and expensive alternative diagnostic procedures.