Nasogastric Tube Placement Training using Virtual Reality

Nasogastric tube (NGT) placement is a common clinical procedure where a plastic tube is inserted into the stomach through the nostril for feeding or drainage. However, the placement is a blind process in which the tube may be mistakenly inserted into other locations, leading to unexpected complications or fatal incidents. The placement techniques are conventionally acquired by practising on unrealistic rubber mannequins or on humans. In this project, a virtual reality based training simulation system is proposed to facilitate the training of NGT placement. It focuses on the simulation of tube insertion and the rendering of the feedback forces with a haptic device. Both physically based method and heuristic approach using fuzzy logic are used to develop the force models. The project was supported by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (PolyU 5134/12E).

Media

Media and press conference
First computerized haptic system in nursing education for nasogastric tube placement training in HK posted by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council
Innovating Nursing Skills Education with Technologies A talk given at the Symposium on Technological Innovations in Nursing Education, hosted by the former Open University of Hong Kong (Metropolitan University of Hong Kong)
How it works

Patent

An Intelligent and Immersive Training System and Device for Nasogastric Tube Placement, 6 July 2018, China Patent Office

Selected Publications

K.S. Choi, X. He, V.C.L. Chiang, Z. Deng. A virtual reality based simulator for learning nasogastric tube placement. Computers in Biology and Medicine, vol. 57, pp. 103-115, 1 February, 2015. [doi]
K.S. Choi, X.J. He, V.C.L. Chiang, Z. Deng, J. Qin. A heuristic force model for haptic simulation of nasogastric tube insertion using fuzzy logic. IEEE Transactions on Haptics, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 295-310, Jul-Sep 2016. [doi]
K.S. Choi, S.T. Chan. Evaluation of a computerized nasogastric tube placement simulator. 2017 Annual Conference of the American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA2017), 30 Mar – 1 Apr 2017.
V.C.L. Chiang, K.S. Choi, S.S.Y. Ching, K.L.K. Leung. Evaluation of a virtual reality based interactive simulator with haptic feedback for learning NGT placement. Journal of Problem-Based Learning, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 25-34, 30 April 2017. [doi]
K.S. Choi. Virtual Reality in Nursing: Nasogastric Tube Placement Training Simulator. The 16th World Congress on Medical and Health Informatics (MedInfo 2017), Hangzhou, China, 21-25 August 2017