An international team of experts gathered in the city of Besançon, France, for a project partner meeting of “MedEd PolyTrauma VR”. The meeting focused on further developing an innovative emergency medicine training system based on virtual reality (VR) technologies. Over the course of three days, project partners from Lithuania, Poland, and France collaborated on testing, refining, and planning advanced training scenarios.
The meeting began with a visit to The Marie and Louis Pasteur Uviversity simulation center, where participants were introduced to cutting-edge learning environments. A key highlight was the presentation by GLUK Media, followed by hands-on testing of a VR training scenario, allowing the partners to evaluate how well VR solutions can be applied in real-world teaching settings. At the end of the meeting, participants visited an Emergency Medicine Department and EMS facility, where they observed real-life applications of simulation-based training in professional practice.
“It was an extremely productive meeting during which we achieved a lot. Seeing the first version of our VR training come to life was a memorable experience and made this meeting truly exceptional,” commented project leader Prof. P. Šerpytis.
Photo from personal archive.
Among the most important outcomes of the meeting was the finalization of five core polytrauma scenarios – internal bleeding, arterial bleeding, chest trauma, head trauma, and burns – along with significant progress in detailing and refining each case. The team also developed an evaluation system to assess student knowledge and defined key educational objectives for each scenario.
In addition, partners discussed the project’s dissemination strategy, with plans to present results at upcoming international medical conferences, aiming to broaden its impact across academic and clinical communities. An updated timeline for upcoming activities was agreed upon, ensuring all tasks are completed on schedule.
Project coordinator R. Juknevičienė emphasized the importance of such meetings, stating: “The project is progressing on schedule, and gatherings like this help us accelerate even further. The collaboration and exchange of expertise among our partners are key drivers of our success.” This successful meeting marks another step forward in the mission to improve emergency medicine education using cutting-edge VR simulation technology.
Representing Lithuania in the project were Professor P. Šerpytis from Vilnius University, emergency medicine physician R. Juknevičienė, and emergency medicine resident B. Raščiūtė, along with GLUK Media team members V. Skinderis and K. Mažeikaitė. They were joined by partners from Poland – Prof. R. Jalali and Dr. M. Baluch from the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. The meeting was hosted by Prof. A. Khoury Jean-Baptiste Pretalli (PhD) and their team from Marie and Louis Pasteur University (formerly the University of Franche-Comté) in Besançon.
The project is carried out under the Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnerships program (KA-220). Its main goal is to improve the quality of clinical skills among medical students through realistic VR-based polytrauma scenarios and to provide educators with a modern tool in physician training. The project will run from 2024 to 2026.
Simulation view. Photo from personal archive.