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 is supported by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (PolyU 5134/12E).
Publicity: Media and press conference
Video: Youtube video hosted by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council
How it works: Youtube video
Selected Publications
- 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]
- Evaluation of a computerized nasogastric tube placement simulator. 2017 Annual Conference of the American Nursing Informatics Association (ANIA2017), 30 Mar – 1 Apr 2017.
- 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]
- A virtual reality based simulator for learning nasogastric tube placement. Computers in Biology and Medicine, vol. 57, pp. 103-115, 1 February, 2015. [doi]