VRedumed project

"We combine the world of virtual reality and healthcare"

The main task of the VReduMED partnership – consisting of 10 partner organisations from 5 Central European countries (CZ, SK, AT, HU, DE) – is the introduction of Virtual Reality as a people-centered MedTech innovation in the education for care professions.

The aim of VReduMED is to improve the cooperation between healthcare education and medtech suppliers (particularly SMEs/start-ups), using Virtual Reality as key enabler to make care work more attractive and ensure high-quality care services in the future.

The project purpose is to respond comprehensively the joint challenges in the education of care professionals in the Central European region.

The project target groups are:

Higher education and research organisations

Educational institutions involved in the training of care professionals and medical staff in a wider sense, general economics and healthcare economics institutes.

Education/training institutes

Center and school upskilling institutes in the field of care education and upskilling of medical staff in a wider sense, secondary educational institutions preparing their students for choosing their future professions.

SMEs

MedTech companies, mostly SMEs, many of them participating in regional

cluster networks.

SMEs and innovative start-ups with VR competences, SMEs that provide training services for the care sector, companies that manage the staffing of care institutions or provide home care services.

Business support organisations

Regional business support and innovation agencies of the partner regions and other interested regional institutional ecosystems.

Sectoral agencies

Cluster agencies, associations of medical/care institutions, associations of care professionals.

Hospitals and medical centres

Medical centres, hospitals and similar healthcare institutions that employ care staff.

General public

Associations of senior citizens, many families that need care staff support for family members, young people in search for a field of professional education, medical and care students, VR enthusiasts, students and experts of computer sciences active in the development of VR applications, etc.

Regional public authority

Regional as well as national public authorities in the field of healthcare policy, regional authorities involved in the development of smart specialisation strategies and other regional development strategies.

National public authority

Regional as well as national public authorities in the field of healthcare policy.

VReduMED focuses on enrich the education of care students and the upskilling of care practitioners, in addition to foster the uptake of MedTech assistance systems by the care sector, and trigger the co-creative development of demand-tailored MedTech solutions.

#1 As a first step, the project partners will prepare the strategic basis to enable MedTech companies and newcomer SMEs to develop innovative VR-based solutions adapted to the needs of care education/care professionals and to launch a collaboration among SMEs, between the MedTech and care experts.

#2 Then follows the establishment of a transnational Care Education Forum as a representative platform of care science lecturers, as well as teachers and trainers of upskilling programmes. In parallel VR application prototypes will be developed by the partners, which will address specific challenges of care work.

#3 Finally, a network of VReduMED labs will be establish, in which VR applications and tools will be available for demonstration purposes and for the implementation of various trainings and innovative interaction formats with care students and care professionals. This phase focuses on target group involvement with the aim of reality check of VR in care education and demonstrating the VReduMED approach in pilot actions.

The project results will be summarized in a VReduMED manual, which will include the experiences of the Care Education Forum, the results of the VReduMED pilot actions, an educational concept and recommendations for the regional nursing education system.

VReduMED project partners:

Lead Partner

1 South Bohemian Science and Technology Park (CZ) • www.jvtp.cz

Project Partners

2 University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice (CZ) • www.jcu.cz

3 Business Upper Austria (AT) • www.biz-up.at

4 Education Group (AT) • www.edugroup.at

5 University of Economics in Bratislava (SK) • www.euba.sk

6 National Institute of Children's Diseases (SK) • www.nudch.eu

7 Strategic Partnership for Sensor Technologies (DE) • www.sensorik-bayern.de

8 Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule (DE) • www.oth-regensburg.de

9 Innoskart Digital Cluster (HU) • www.innoskart.digital

• Széchenyi István University (HU) • sze.hu